We’re all too familiar with the Media Research Center’s idea of “media research.” Here’s another example.
A July 9 “special edition” of the MRC’s “Notable Quotables” feature purports to document “the media’s continuing love affair with Barack Obama.” The headline on it reads, “Special Edition: Still Slobbering Over Barack Obama.”
But the MRC has a peculiar definition of “still” and “continuing.” Only two of the 26 quotes listed are from this year; many of them date from 2009. But really — 26 cherry-picked quotes over four years somehow proves that “the media” is “still slobbering” over Obama?
The MRC also fails to distinguish between reporters and commentators. It even throws in as one example “Simon & Schuster’s promotional language for The Promise: President Obama, Year One, a book released May 18, 2010, by Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter.” Press releases are part of “the media”?
The MRC, it seems, is so obsessed with treating any positive description of Obama as “slobbering” that its manufactured outrage over it is utterly meaningless. Its supporters, though, seem unable to tell the difference between it and genuine outrage, so such shoddy “research” must be working out for the MRC.