Tim Graham probably didn’t mean to admit that his employer, the Media Research Center, cares more about political hack work than “media research,” but that’s what he does in a Sept. 22 NewsBusters post.
Responding to a claim by the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto that it’s “dog bites man to complain about “hostile liberal questions” aimed at Republican presidential candidates, and that such questions are “doing the ultimate nominee a favor” by “toughening” them up for the election, Graham asserted:
Groups like the MRC are not around to chronicle “dog bites man, yadda yadda yadda.” We are around to underline the point that our “objective” national media cannot be trusted to offer honest information and balanced analysis. They fail easy tests of journalistic professionalism because they want to “make history.” See the entire knee-quivering, leg-thrilling, “God Damn America”-excusing 2008 Obama campaign.
Graham has essentially admitted what we’ve already deduced: that the MRC cares only about pushing the “liberal media” trope and has no interest in things (like Fox News) that don’t conform to its hypothesis.
And if Graham cares so much about an “objective” media that provides “honest information and balanced analysis,” he and his employer should try operating one sometime, because the MRC-owned CNSNews.com certainly isn’t it. Graham has no moral standing to criticize other media outlets for bias when his employer’s media outlet is far more riddled with bias.
Thanks, Mr. Graham, for giving the MRC’s game away. Now explain why the MRC should be taken seriously amid such blatant hypocrisy.