Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell appeared on the April 18 edition of CNN’s “In The Arena,” where host Eliot Spitzer took exception to the MRC accusing him of being biased.
After rebutting the MRC’s claim that he didn’t press Democratic members of Congress on their failure to pass a budget in a timely fashion by airing a clip from his show earlier this month, Bozell blustered that it was just one example and that if he could “bring in my producer on the show and I would show you about a hundred, maybe a thousand examples in the opposite direction.” But Bozell offered not a single example.
Spitzer then pointed out one of the examples of Bozell’s complaining that the media was portraying President Obama as an adult, but included an example of CNN’s Gloria Borger saying that Obama was “politically what he’s trying to do is be the grown-up,” which is not the same thing. Bozell retorted with right-wing talking points: “If she were being completely fair and comprehensively honest, she would point out that this man has no currency whatsoever in this debate” because he had previously pledged that he would cut the deficit. When Spitzer noted that Bozell was giving “a partisan, ideological perspective,” Bozell huffed that it’s not a valid observation that Obama was trying to be the adult in the budget debate.
Finally — in a section that was cut out of the version of the video on the Bozell-operated NewsBusters — Spitzer took exception to an April 11 NewsBusters post by Matt Hadro with the headline “Eliot Spitzer Creepily Exploits Military Family’s Financial Troubles for Political Gain.” Bozell stood by the post, claiming that Spitzer was using a “scare tactic” and that “the Republican leadership said that if the government was closed down, there would be legislation to protect the military.” Spitzer reminded Bozell that there was no such legislation pending at the time of the interview. Still, Bozell insisted that Spitzer was “stating something that is fundamentally not true,” and that Congress would have protected the troops. Then it gets absurd:
SPITZER: Was there a bill at that time to do it?
BOZELL: There would have been!
You can see why NewsBusters cut out that part of the video. Spitzer 1, Bozell 0.