MRC’s Houck Reacts on FNC to Biden/Trump Debate Plans; ‘Watch Out for Shenanigans’

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck returned to the Fox News Channel Wednesday on Fox News @ Night to react to the sudden agreement between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump campaigns to hold presidential debates on June 27 with CNN and September 10 with ABC. Speaking to host Trace Gallagher, Houck urged caution on the part of the Trump team and be prepared for the debates to be rigged. Asked by Gallagher to explain why he doesn’t “think that CNN moderators” Jake Tapper and Dana Bash “will give Trump a fair shake,” Houck explained “you got to watch out for shenanigans” and said it was reminiscent of what this site warned ahead of the “infamous CNBC debate back during the 2016 election cycle.”     “Jake Tapper, he received awards for pushing the fake Trump Russia collusion case. So, as you point out in your Common Sense [commentary], and Erin [Perrine] and Amber [Duke] pointed out as well [in the previous segment], you know, the demands that President Trump is willing to meet, yeah, you want to see these debates happen, but did you do that at the expense of a fair show for you,” he added. Gallagher then went to former local TV anchor Dee Sarton with similar warning from a piece by our friend Eddie Scarry at The Federalist: “Trump, along with every other Republican should at least have a guarantee that there won’t be any more Chris Wallace or Candy Crowley moments where the moderator takes liberty to run interference for the Democrats.” Sarton concurred with Houck and Scarry, saying her “stomached turned when I heard...who moderators were going to be” and Biden may “have turned the tables a little bit with” his goating video Wednesday morning. “You got to really think about the Americans...who would really love to see these two men side by side, who maybe are still a little bit undecided in this. What do they need to hear? And try to cut through that...[T]he guy is pretty smart..But it’s going to take a lot of work to be ready for that night,” she argued. Houck followed up with more concerns about this CNN debate, such as the possibility they’ll engage in “live fact-checking” with the sniveling Daniel Dale “and who knows about snarky chyrons.” To remove the possibility of any nonsense being fed to the moderators, Houck also suggested “Dana Bash and Jake Tapper and then, Lindsey Davis and David Muir and ABC shouldn’t be wearing earpieces” in order to keep the debate as organic and “free flowing” as possible. All they would need to keep things moving, Houck argued, would be clocks (which are standard below most camera rigs in TV studios). “There is just so many factors, especially with CNN that we really, really got to watch out for. And just real quickly, on substance, Peter Doocy is exactly right, that — it’s very clear this is to distract away from the issues, considering Biden has been dragged on issue after issue,” Houck concluded. Before the segment wrapped, Sarton spoke from experience of moderating debates about the dynamics between having an audience versus none at all: I’ve heard some people say today, oh, well, Trump, you know, he feeds off the audience. He needs that audience. I’m not sure I agree with that. I think he can bring it without an audience, even though obviously, it helps. I’ve done debates when the room is empty, and it really does suck all the light out of the room...I don’t think the lack of an audience is going to be nearly as damaging to President Trump. To see the relevant transcript from May 15, click “expand.” FNC’s Fox News @ Night with Trace Gallagher May 15, 2024 11:09 p.m. Eastern TRACE GALLAGHER: Let’s get media analysis from NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, and the host of A Home That Heals podcast, the queen of Idaho Television, former TV news anchor Dee Sarton. Thank you both for coming on. To you first, Curtis, because you don’t think that CNN moderators will give Trump a fair shake. Explain that for us. CURTIS HOUCK: Yeah, I think you got to watch out for shenanigans, Trace. We, at NewsBusters said this when there was that infamous CNBC debate back during the 2016 election cycle. Jake Tapper, he received awards — GALLAGHER: Mmhmm. HOUCK: — for pushing the fake Trump Russia collusion case. So, as you point out in your Common Sense, and Erin and Amber pointed out as well, you know, the demands that President Trump is willing to meet, yeah, you want to see these debates happen — GALLAGHER: Right. HOUCK: — but did you do that at the expense of a fair show for you? GALLAGHER: Yeah. And Dee, Eddie Scarry at The Federalists, wrote the following here, quoting, “Trump, along with every other Republican should at least have a guarantee that there won’t be any more Chris Wallace or Candy Crowley moments where the moderator takes liberty to run interference for the Democrats.” I mean, we have learned that moderates can — moderators, rather, Dee, can really sway the jury. I mean, you have worked the debates. So, you know, what’s going on here. If you were advising Trump, about these debates, is there anything you would advise or add? DEE SARTON: Oh, boy, I’ll tell you, my stomach turned when I heard, you know, who the moderators were going to be? And yeah, it’s a — it’s a tough situation. I feel like he came out so strong and said, any place any time. GALLAGHER: Yeah. SARTON: That was sort of his power play, and now they have turned the tables a little bit with this. And so, I am a little bit worried about that. And I guess my advice would be boy, you got to really think about the Americans — the Americans that — that I’m around all the time, who would really love to see these two men side by side, who maybe are still a little bit undecided in this. What do they need to hear? And try to cut through that. But that’s got to be tough, but I kind of can’t imagine when you’ve got the — all of that going against you, how that happens. GALLAGHER: Yeah. SARTON: But the guy is pretty smart, and I think he can figure it out. But it’s going to take a lot of work to be ready for that night and in a way that the underdecides will hear his message. GALLAGHER: Yeah. It seems, Curtis that the Biden team wants this debate to be as controlled as possible. You know, that’s why you control as much as you can. And hopefully, you can contain any errors or any you know, bad looks. HOUCK: Yeah, exactly. I mean, and then, there is the question, as you pointed out, as well about live fact-checking, is Daniel Dale going to be there? GALLAGHER: Yeah. HOUCK: I saw someone on X today argue that maybe, you know, the Dana Bash and Jake Tapper and then Lindsey Davis and David Muir and ABC shouldn’t be wearing earpieces, so they are not being fed things in their ear. You know, they can have clocks there like we do in our studios for keeping time. But other than that, I mean, it should just be free flowing. GALLAGHER: Yeah. HOUCK: And who knows about snarky chyrons? There is just so many factors, especially with CNN that we really, really got to watch out for. And just real quickly, on substance, Peter Doocy is exactly right, that — it’s very clear this is to distract away from the issues, considering Biden has been dragged on issue after issue. GALLAGHER: Yeah, and it really is a big gamble, Dee, because you look at this and you think, okay, they can control this, they can cut the microphone to Donald Trump, and cut Biden’s microphone and, maybe even kind of limited the moderators, but the bottom line is, is that there’s no teleprompter. And if you’re an 81-year-old president, who is known to kind of speak out of turn, this is something that they cannot control and it’s not the State of the Union speech. I mean, you can do whatever you want to but you have to speak off the cuff for a lot of this. SARTON: Right, you really do. And, you know, I was thinking about this earlier today. It’s a situation where people — I’ve heard some people say today, oh, well, Trump, you know, he feeds off the audience. He needs that audience. I’m not sure I agree with that. I think he can bring it without an audience, even though obviously, it helps. I’ve done debates when the room is empty, and it really does suck all the light out of the room. But I do you think it’s going to be tough. From what we have seen of President Biden, I just kind of can’t imagine what that’s going to be like. GALLAGHER: Yeah. SARTON: And not having those support systems in place for him, I think that’s going to be the Achilles heel for him. I don’t think the lack of an audience is going to be nearly as damaging to President Trump. GALLAGHER: Yep, it is. I mean, you’re the President. You are alone and you are flying blind for a short time there. Dee Sarton, Curtis Houck, thank you both. HOUCK: Thanks.

MRC's Tim Graham on Fox Biz: NPR's CEO Should Be Afraid of Us and Our Evidence

After his boat-rocking testimony before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on the leftist tilt of National Public Radio on Wednesday, NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham appeared on The Bottom Line with Dagen & Duffy on Fox Business. Host Sean Duffy said it was unfair to make taxpayers fund a "radical liberal machine.". NPR CEO Katharine Maher declined an invitation to the hearing, and Graham said "Maybe she didn't want to show up because we had all of the examples today.... NPR likes books like In Defense of Looting. NPR likes the movie How to Blow Up a Pipeline and then it's everything they have to say about the Republicans, being 'hard right' Republicans who want to drive the country off a cliff. I don't know how you can defend all that. We had Democrats today trying to claim what NPR does is objective, you just don't like objective reporting, which is comedy. You can't provide a laugh track when they say that, because it impolite. But you sure wanted to."   Co-host Dagen McDowell suggested the Democrats don't listen to NPR so they can be "blissfully ignorant" when they call it unbiased, so they "can stay that without laughing." She called NPR a "sewage lagoon." They discussed how NPR claims they only receive one percent of the budget from the federal government, but in reality, the government funds the local affiliates, who send money back to Washington in "programming fees." So a defunding would be dramatic for them.  Tim said "What they really need to do is just take that threat, and say we getter go back to what we are supposed to be doing, which is allowing both sides to speak, let both parties speak. That is not what they are doing, they have softballs for Democrats and hardball for Republicans -- when they get a chance [to be interviewed]." See highlights from Tim's hearing here. 

Free Speech Alliance Members Applaud House Hearing on Leftist Tilt at Tax-Funded NPR

The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight Subcommittee is holding a hearing on Wednesday morning to address the political tilt of taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio. NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham is one of the experts who will testify.  Members of the MRC-led Free Speech Alliance sent a letter to committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) applauding the hearing and insisting taxpayers "should not be compelled to pay for a politicized media outlet whose primary objective is to undermine American ideas and ideals." The letter argues PBS and NPR have made a mockery of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which mandates “objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.” Therefore, "NPR must not be rewarded for its unlawful behavior and anti-American objectives." Signatories include MRC founder and president Brent Bozell, Young America’s Foundation President Governor Scott Walker, American Values President Gary Bauer, and American Principles Project President Terry Schilling.  The letter is below:  Dear Chair McMorris Rodgers, We applaud your decision to investigate National Public Radio (NPR). Its politicized leadership and programming have once again been brought into the spotlight, but its history of biased reporting is legendary. It long ago abandoned even the appearance of abiding by its statutory mandates in favor of pursuing a leftwing agenda.  Taxpayers should not be compelled to pay for a politicized media outlet whose primary objective is to undermine American ideas and ideals, including our First Amendment free-speech rights as well as the economic system that creates the wealth that NPR feeds off of.  It is critical that this hearing expose NPR’s unlawful conduct and how its leadership and reporters have used its resources to pursue political outcomes.  For its entire existence, NPR and its sister organization, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), have made a mockery of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which mandates “objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.” NPR must not be rewarded for its unlawful behavior and anti-American objectives. Many argue that no media outlet should be subsidized with US tax dollars, but NPR has certainly lost the moral authority to demand our continued support.  We encourage you to thoroughly investigate how NPR uses its talent and resources in contravention of the law. The Committee should determine the following:  With thousands of alternative media outlets now available to the public, has NPR outlived its usefulness? Are NPR’s hiring practices designed to prevent diversity of viewpoints in its programming? Has NPR used its power, reach and resources to interfere in elections, including the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections? Half of Americans are conservative or lean right in their political views; how does NPR attempt, if at all, to address the interests of this swath of Americans? In 1967, Congress determined that funding NPR and PBS, both entities under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), was necessary since there were only three broadcasters on television and only a small number of news-oriented radio stations across the country. Today, the internet has allowed countless alternative news sources to flourish. There are tens of thousands of online media sites and countless podcasts where the public access news daily.  Black-and-white televisions have been replaced with 5G technology and most radio stations now have apps to compete with audio streaming services. Why should taxpayers continue to finance PBS and NPR now that there’s CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Spotify, Pandora, Sirius XM, iHeart Radio, Amazon Prime, Apple Music, and countless others?  Thank you for holding this important hearing. We look forward to learning how the Committee intends to reform NPR and the role taxpayers play in funding its operations.  Sincerely, L. Brent Bozell III Founder and President Media Research Center   J. Christian Adams President and General Counsel Public Interest Legal Foundation   Saulius “Saul” Anuzis President The American Association of Senior Citizens    Brent Baker Vice President for Research and Publications Media Research Center   Gary L. Bauer President American Values   Ryan Bomberger CoFounder & Chief Creative Officer Radiance Foundation   David N. Bossie President Citizens United   Floyd Brown Founder The Western Journal   The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs President Ronald Reagan   Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II   Elaine Donnelly President Center for Military Readiness   Steven Ertelt Editor LifeNews.com   Kevin Freeman Founder NSIC Institute   Mark J. Fitzgibbons President of Corporate Affairs American Target Advertising   Lady Brigitte Gabriel Founder & Chairman ACT For America   Paul Gessing President Rio Grande Foundation   Tim Graham Executive Editor NewsBusters   Mike​​​​ Gonzalez Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy The Heritage Foundation   Mike Hill  Former Member  Florida State House   Phil Kerpen President American Commitment   Kelly M. Kullberg General Secretary American Association of Evangelicals    Jim Lakely Vice President & Director of Communications The Heartland Institute   George Landrith President Frontiers of Freedom   John Pierce  Chairman National Constitutional Law Union   Richard Manning President Americans for Limited Government   Josh Manning Deputy Managing Editor The Western Journal   Mr. Edward Martin President Phyllis Schlafly Eagles   James L. Martin Founder/Chairman  60 Plus Association   Christie-Lee McNally President Raven Strategies   Cleta Mitchell, Esq. Founder Election Integrity Network   C. Preston Noell III President Tradition, Family, Property, Inc The Honorable George K Rasley Jr Managing Editor ConservativeHQ.com   Khadine L. Ritter, Esq. Chairman Eagle Forum of Ohio   Craig Shirley Chairman and CEO Shirley & McVicker Public Affairs   Terry Schilling President American Principles Project   Cameron Sholty Executive Director Heartland Impact   Dan Schneider  Vice President for Free Speech Media Research Center   Jon Schweppe Policy Director American Principles Project   Sharon Slater President  Family Watch International   Sean Spicer Host The Sean Spicer Show   James Taylor President The Heartland Institute   Tim Throckmorton  President Lifepointe Ministries   Kristen A. Ullman President Eagle Forum   Governor Scott Walker President Young America’s Foundation   Gavin Mario Wax President New York Young Republican Club   Deborah Weiss, Esq.,  President, Vigilance, Inc   Tim Wildmon President American Family Association  

MRC Announces Third Annual Bulldog Award Winners: Hanson, Shapiro, Dillon, Zito, Schweizer, Akiva and Prager

With our third annual Bulldog Awards in six categories announced today, the Media Research Center is honoring conservatives in the media who truly deserve accolades yet will never receive them from the news media establishment. The winners of the MRC’s 2024 Bulldog Awards: Victor Davis Hanson, Ben Shapiro, Seth Dillon, Salena Zito, Peter Schweizer, Kassy Akiva and Dennis Prager. The biggest journalism awards, the Pulitzer Prizes, were announced on Monday, May 6. Inevitably, they honored journalists who pushed liberal agenda topics. (See the bottom of this post for some examples.) In announcing this year’s winners, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell III said: “Like everything else the left controls, major journalism awards are rigged to reward people who advance their most radical agenda priorities. If you want to win a Pulitzer, write about 'climate change' or 'systemic racism' or 'reproductive health' or promote ‘Russian collusion.’ If you want to win a Bulldog Award, tell the truth. This year's winners are great American truth-tellers.” Bozell added, “I applaud Victor’s wise insights, Ben’s savage podcasts, Seth’s mockery of the left and defense of free speech, Salena giving voice to Middle-America, Peter’s damning investigations, Kassy’s war coverage and exposing anti-Semitism and Dennis’s can’t-miss radio show and work at PragerU. Congratulations to this year’s winners!” Previous: 2022 and 2023 Bulldog winners Details on the seven winners of the MRC’s 2024 Bulldog Awards announced Tuesday, May 7: ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Victor Davis Hanson The leading conservative thinker and author of our age, Victor Davis Hanson has for decades offered wise guidance on a wide range of issues, providing intellectual fuel for conservatives battling the latest liberal schemes to undermine traditional American values.   A man of many skills and passions, he’s a farmer, university professor, historian and prolific author. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded him the National Humanities Medal. He’s written or edited 25 books, and is probably best known for his 2002 treatise, ‘Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power.’ His latest book, the much-anticipated ‘The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation,’ is being published this week. For years his articles were must-reads in the pages of National Review. Today, cable news viewers who are privileged to catch one of his appearances always come away with a broader and deeper understanding of the issue at hand. He’s now the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where his focus is on classics and military history. He also teaches in the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University.     ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Podcast: Ben Shapiro Ben Shapiro is a super-star of podcasters, his popular podcast rightly touted as “the hardest hitting, most insightful, and savagely irreverent conservative podcast on the web.” In a sign of his popularity and desire of so many to hear his takes on the latest news, radio stations across the country air his daily podcast as a radio show. A whole generation of young conservatives considers Shapiro an inspiration and point to him when asked who is the conservative voice they trust the most. He is also a leading speaker on college campuses where he’s willing to confront liberal assumptions and “woke” students on the most contentious issues. Shapiro’s podcast and radio show are part of a much larger media empire he has been a key player in building. He’s the founding editor-in-chief and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, a profitable media company producing a wide-array of original products which push conservative values into the wider hostile culture, including a popular news web site, video shows and audio productions, and a pioneering move into original production documentaries and entertainment films from a conservative perspective.   ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Social Media Personality: Seth Dillon Seth Dillon, a battler for free speech and producer of much-needed mockery of cancel culture, has been CEO of The Babylon Bee since 2018. He’s grown the site into a national treasure, a compelling daily creator of articles and videos decimating, through satire, the Left and “woke” culture. Dillon observes that “jokes are funny because of their proximity to the truth” and “the problem now isn’t that our satire is too close to reality, it’s that reality is too close to satire.” As “Your Trusted Source for Christian News Satire,” the Babylon Bee drives liberals crazy as conservatives laugh at how the site skewers liberals with their own hypocrisy. So-called “fact check” and social media sites have embarrassed themselves by deplatforming and canceling Dillon and the Babylon Bee for supposed disinformation, unable to recognize satire or tolerate any ridicule of themselves. In on the joke, the X page for the Babylon Bee, restored by new X owner Elon Musk, dubs itself: “Fake news you can trust.” Indeed it is. ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Columnist: Salena Zito Salena Zito is the “Middle America”-whisperer, relaying the views and passions of the heartland to those on the coasts. As she best explains herself: “In my estimation, there is no patch of geography in this country that is the ‘middle of nowhere.’ This is America; everywhere is the middle of somewhere.” Based in Western Pennsylvania, she joined the Washington Examiner in 2016 as a political reporter and columnist, just in time to chronicle Donald Trump’s popularity in her region. Her columns also appear in the New York Post and she appears as a guest on the Fox News Channel and Newsmax. In 2018, she co-authored, ‘The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.’ Amongst her unique 2023 column takes: “Community colleges and trade schools are largely void of Israel-Hamas protests”; “What the ‘Great Trucking Recession’ is warning us about the economy”; “The general store that cultivated a community one Friday at a time”; “Faith groups come together in Youngstown to ‘Stop the Violence’”; “Democrats abandon the blue-collar worker in favor of ‘social justice’ warriors” and “Mike Rowe is on a mission to reverse the ‘unspeakable stupidity’ of devaluing work.” ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism: Peter Schweizer Anyone who watches the Fox News Channel or Newsmax knows Peter Schweizer as the go-to expert on all things China, particularly of late, the Chinese payment scandals involving Joe and Hunter Biden. But he’s first and foremost a driven investigative book author, uncovering topics ignored by the liberal media. An impressive eight of his books have made it onto the New York Times’ best-seller list. He hit #1 earlier this year with his latest, ‘Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans.’ Previous ground-breaking books include 2022’s ‘Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win’; in 2018, ‘Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends’; and in 2015, ‘Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.’   An earlier book, ‘Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison,’ was so compelling that even the liberals at CBS’s 60 Minutes considered it worth featuring on their program. He conducts his investigative journalism through the Florida-based Government Accountability Institute, which he founded in 2012 “to investigate and expose crony capitalism, misuse of taxpayer monies, and other governmental corruption or malfeasance.” ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Blogger: Kassy Akiva A reporter and video journalist for The Daily Wire since October of 2023 after serving as a digital journalist for FoxNews.com, Kassy Akiva is a dedicated chronicler of the excesses of the left. Since October 7 and the start of the Israel/Hamas War, Akiva has been a force in covering the anti-Semitism festering on college campuses across the country. Since she calls Boston home, she has been able to shine a spotlight on the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred at Harvard in particular which contributed to national pressure on the university’s president, Claudine Gay, to resign. (“‘Can’t Fool Me’: Arab-Speaking Israeli Slams Rashida Tlaib For Lie About ‘From the River To The Sea’ Chant” and “‘Harvard Does Not Have Our Back’: Rabbi Slams University At Hanukkah Event Attended By Claudine Gay”). Akiva’s fearless reporting on the war even took her halfway around the world to the combat zone itself. While in Israel, she visited the Kfar Aza kibbutz to witness firsthand the carnage and evil Hamas terrorists unleashed on Israeli civilians. She also scored an exclusive with a Thai man who survived Hamas’s attack and who was able to identify his captured roommate on surveillance video from the Al Shifa hospital. (“EXCLUSIVE: Survivor of Hamas Attack Identifies Hostage From Al Shifa Hospital Footage As His Roommate”). She got the journalism itch earlier, taking the initiative, while still in college, to create the Lone Conservative, a blog to empower conservative students outnumbered on leftist campuses.   ♦ 2024 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Radio Talk Show Host: Dennis Prager Radio talk show host, podcaster, author, columnist and business pioneer, Dennis Prager’s work ethic is the envy of many. Prager got his start in radio in 1982 at KABC in Los Angeles. He’s had a national show on the Salem Radio network since 2009 and now can also be watched via a simulcast on the Salem News Channel video streaming service. His noontime ET national radio show delivers sober takes on the news of the day, which Prager uses to launch deeper expositions on the conservative principles that inform his political stands based on ethical monotheism. He’s genuinely interested in the perspectives of his callers, engaging them in informative exchanges. Beyond radio, in 2009 he founded Prager University (PragerU), “the most viewed conservative video site in the world, with one billion views a year, more than half by people under the age of 35.” PragerU’s videos, with “the best ideas from the best minds distilled into five focused minutes,” extend the reach of conservative values to new audiences, particularly inquisitive high school and college-age students.   2024 Pulitzer Prizes. As noted above, the biggest journalism awards were announced on May 6. Inevitably, they honored journalists who pushed liberal agenda topics. Examples: > The New Yorker earned the “explanatory reporting” Pulitzer for “a searing indictment of our legal system’s reliance on the felony murder charge and its disparate consequences, often devastating for communities of color.” > The Washington Post won in “national reporting” for “its sobering examination of the AR 15 semiautomatic rifle which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings.” > ProPublica was awarded the “public service” prize for trying to discredit conservative Supreme Court justices, particularly Clarence Thomas. The friendly framing from the Pulitzer board praised the “groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel.” > 2023 MRC Bulldog Award winners > 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Brit Hume > 2022 MRC Bulldog Award winners > 2022 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Cal Thomas  

MRC’s Bozell Joins FBN’s Varney in Slamming Media’s Campus Protest and Trump Coverage

On Thursday, MRC President Brent Bozell appeared on the Fox Business’s Varney & Company to break down how the leftist media are failing to properly cover the student protests. Bozell and Varney also had a good laugh over the Trump trials backfiring on the left and MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace’s “end of democracy” fear-mongering.   The segment began with Bozell admonishing network and cable coverage (with the exception of Fox News) for ignoring three key elements of the protests.  First up, Bozell noted the lack of coverage of the protest backers: “The agitators, the professional people who are causing trouble funded by radical left-wing groups. How is that not a story?” Bozell then called out the censorship of the ugly slurs on display: “Second, the comments that are being made. The chants! ‘Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too!’ Putting up signs that say ‘Final Solution.’ ‘From the river to the sea.’ All these messages that say kill Israelis. Not political, kill Israelis.”   Bozell continued: “And then the third element. The big one that’s been missing here. Is this is all couched under a pro-Palestinian, it is not pro-Palestinian, it is pro-Hamas. And they’re not saying it. They’re not saying that this is endorsing a radical terrorist movement that slaughters thousands of Israelis.”     Later on in the segment, Varney and Bozell chatted about the left’s strategy of keeping Trump tied-up in the courtroom and how it has backfired.   Bozell observed: “Why is Donald Trump going up in the polls? Because the public is seeing the puppet trials that are taking place right now….They’re saying this is fundamentally unfair. This guy is being kept off the campaign trail through these ridiculous lawsuits that are being thrown at him….and it’s backfiring on the left.” Varney and Bozell then had a good laugh over MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace’s claim that a “free press” may no longer exist if Donald Trump wins in November. The following is a complete transcript of the Fox Business Varney & Company segment that aired on May 2:  Fox Business Varney & Company May 2, 2024 HOST STUART VARNEY: The president of the Media Research Center is Brent Bozell and he joins me now. Brent studies the media and what they are up to. So I got two questions for you, Brent. Number one. How is the media covering the campus unrest and then deal with how the media is covering Trump trials? Start with the campus unrest please. L. BRENT BOZELL: Ok, campus unrest. There’s a rule, a normal rule about reporting. Which is the analysis before an event or after an event is where you see real bias but when it’s hard news of an event it tends to be pretty good. Well there are exceptions to the rule and we’re talking about an exception to the rule.  There are three things — elements of this in the hard news phase that Fox is covering. They should all be covering but they’re not.  The first one, we just heard. The agitators, the professional people who are causing trouble funded by radical left-wing groups. How is that not a story?  Second, the comments that are being made. The chants! “Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too!” Putting up signs that say “Final Solution.”  “From the river to the sea.” All these messages that say kill Israelis. Not political, kill Israelis.  Second, Donald Trump. VARNEY: Yeah.  BOZELL: You’re seeing recent surveys that are showing this. Why is Donald Trump going up in the polls? Because the public is seeing the puppet trials that are taking place right now. I think they’re saying this is fundamentally unfair. This guy is being kept off the campaign trail through these ridiculous lawsuits that are being thrown at him. When he’s up, when he is going up two, three, four, five, six points in the polls while he’s sitting in a courtroom, that tells you that the public is fed up with this and it’s backfiring on the left.  VARNEY: Next one, Brent. I want you to listen to what MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace said about the threat Trump poses to democracy. Roll it please. CLIP OF MSNBC HOST NICOLLE WALLACE: Depending what happens in November — seven months from right now — this time next year, I might not be sitting here. There might not be a White House Correspondents Dinner or a free press. While our democracy won’t exactly fall apart immediately without it, the real threat looms larger. A candidate with outward disdain not just for a free press but for all of our freedoms and the rule of law itself.  VARNEY: Okay, Brent. Wallace thinks Trump will destroy democracy. Do you think the media is destroying democracy? BOZELL: Those same people that are chanting that Trump is trying to end democracy had nothing to say when there were attempts in 36 of  the 50 states of the United States to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, and the Supreme Court by a unanimous 9-0 vote declared it was unconstitutional. That it was — in fact — an attack on democracy. It’s these same hypocrites who are doing this. Welcome to today’s world.  VARNEY: It never changes. Great stuff, Brent. Come and see us again. Don’t be a stranger, okay? BOZELL: Thanks Stuart.