Not even the so-called “phony soldiers” controversy which led to the attack of Rush Limbaugh, and propagated by Media Matters, has caused its conservative counterpart the Media Research Center to challenge its purpose. But revelations about Media Matters in recent days have changed that.
For the first time since Jan. 2008, MRC president Brent Bozell took on the subject of Media Matters on Thursday night’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel. Bozell offered his critique of the organization and why they are more political operatives than media critics.
“Well, let me first preface this by saying as a matter of policy I refuse to talk about this organization. I’m making an exception tonight because I do want to comment on it tonight,” Bozell said. “Because that memo — and kudos to Tucker Carlson and Daily Caller for this. That memo confirms everything you and I talked about for the last year about the left where they have an agenda, they have — objective truth has nothing to do with it. If you look and read the words, where does the media bias come in play anywhere there? What they say is, their job is to do the dirty work for the Obama administration and Congress. And they are going after Fox. Not because of a bias on Fox, but because they want to do the dirty work of the Obama administration and they see Fox as not being in tune with the Obama administration.” (RELATED: The money behind the message: Left-wing foundations lavish millions on Media Matters)
Bozell pointed out that they had an agenda and offered various campaigns by Media Matters to get former analyst Juan Williams and current analyst Mara Liasson off of NPR as evidence. But he also told of the since-debunked controversy involving Limbaugh and how that was a stain on the organization.
“How about this one, Sean — think about this,” he said. “We all know the phony soldier story with Rush Limbaugh. We all know how he was completely discredited. We know how it was used as an attempt to end his career by going after his advertisers with an absolutely false story. It was so false, it was so thoroughly debunked that his enemies on Capitol Hill had to issue a formal speech on the floor of the House to apologize. Do you know Sean that you can go on this group’s website and the story is still there?”
Bozell noted that Media Matters’ favorite targets were “Hannity” host Sean Hannity and “The O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly, but rarely the straight news talent on the network, including “Special Report” host Bret Baier or “The Fox Report” anchor Shepard Smith. But he said that as their list of so-called boogeymen has grown shorter, the tactics of Media Matters have become more desperate.
“I am getting a sense that Media Matters is like the rats in the corner — the rat that is cornered that goes for the jugular,” he said. “According to this report, their audience is down 63 percent. The numbers are down 63 percent. They have more money than the good Lord. But they don’t have an audience out there and I think they are getting desperate. I think the tactics they are employing are the tactics of desperation. When they go this personal, this savage, this ugly — that’s desperation. That’s when I say to conservatives, watch out.”