Is This MRC On? I Tell Ya, Newsbusters Just Can't Get No Respect

Written by Karl Frisch

Published

It must be tough working on Media Research Center's blog. Think about it -- day in and day out, the fine folks at Newsbusters do their level best to shout down progressive media figures, manufacture scandals out of thin air and prove that no one does hypocrisy and ridiculousness quite like them. Some examples:

Much, much more here.

And what do they get for their hard work? Not much. Sure, Newsbusters' talking heads pop up on Fox News from time to time but you wouldn't know it if you listened to some of their natural allies on the right. It's sort of like one of those “out of sight, out of mind” situations.

Take this from Sean Hannity on his radio program yesterday for example (emphasis added):

First of all, these self appointed, well-funded media groups that spend their days literally taping, monitoring everything that every conservative in the country is saying in the hopes that they can catch a conservative saying that they find politically incorrect or distasteful. And then they can silence them. They can either target their advertisers or they could, you know, start an outright campaign, as in [Andrew Breitbart's] case, to get you off of coverage and get your voice silenced because they don't like what you say. Now this is troubling to me from a lot of aspects. Number one, they don't do the same thing to liberal groups. There's no conservative equivalent, if you will. And conservatives don't do the same things. They're not calling for these boycotts. *

Or this nugget from a discussion with discredited hack Andrew Breitbart on Fox News' Red Eye last week:

BILL SCHULZ: No one ever wants to talk about David Koch. It's always Soros.

BREITBART: What is the corollary that the Kochs are paying for that Media Matters -- which is the craziest, its reams and reams and reams of transcripts and disagreeing with every word that comes out. What have the Koch brothers ever funded ** that is the equivalent of [Media Matters]?

Or this from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) last year:

“We need a communications organizations [sic] that can, again, match Media Matters.”

Maybe Media Research Center needs to do some more legwork to establish Newsbusters on the right -- it's only been around for five years. Then again, Media Research Center has been around since 1987 so is there really any excuse for their allies to keep forgetting about their very existence?

* Yes, MRC has called for boycotts. It also cheered Olbermann's suspension.

** Yes, the Kochs have funded MRC.