One of the ways Media Research Center Tim Graham loves to slag the so-called “liberal media” is by asserting the prowess and alleged robustness of right-wing journalists — minus any actual proof to back it up, of course.
Graham does this again in a Dec. 14 post attacking CNN media critic Brian Stelter for daring to criticize those who dismiss right-wing journalism:
Stelter maligned Trump voters and supporters of Trump’s media critiques as anti-journalism: “A big part of the country has opted out of journalism and opted in to an alternate reality.”
Liberals always think that you either swallow the liberal media consensus whole, or you’ve “opted out of journalism.” Why don’t they understand conservatives are journalists? Could they acknowledge conservatives were tougher journalists in the last eight years?
Again, if would be nice if Graham had cited any examples of conservatives being “tougher journalists” than non-conservative ones in the last eight years, but of course he doesn’t. He certainly can’t point to his fellow MRC co-workers at CNSNews.com as an example, since all they care about is slavish stenography of Donald Trump and his minions and snide attacks on liberals.
Further, his view of the media is unrealistically binary — in his eyes, any media that’s not slavishly right-wing is “liberal.” That view may bring in the big bucks from right-wing donors, but it’s not how the media world works.
Graham also complains that “Stelter also predictably bashed Fox News in the usual Clintonista terms as a kind of super PAC instead of a news channel,” but again, Graham offers no proof that it’s not.
So it seems that Graham is once again criticizing others for making accurate observations about the right-wing media.