The Media Research Center hasn’t historically done much in the way of anti-immigrant activism, but apparently that’s changing.
Last week, two students at a high school in suburban Washington, D.C., were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting another student in a school restroom. One of the alleged assailants is an undocumented immigrant, however, and the second is a recent arrival to the U.S. So the MRC decided the story was ripe for a little right-wing political exploitation.
In a March 21 post, the MRC’s Curtis Houck cheered that a reporter from the Fox affiliate in Washington, D.C., asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the incident, going on to complain: “As far as we can tell, no network or cable news coverage has been given to the rape that occurred last week at Rockville High School in Montgomery County, Maryland since it’s an inconvenient story for their liberal narrative.”
Or, you know because it’s a local story that doesn’t merit national coverage. Not that the MRC will allow a little thing like that conflict with its political agenda.
Indeed, the next day, Kristine Marsh had already convicted the defendants without a trial — and cheered that her favorite news outlet did latch onto the story:
Last Thursday, a young girl attending Rockville High School in Maryland was brutally gang raped in her school’s bathroom by two fellow students, at least one of which was in the country illegally. Jose O. Montano, 17, from El Salvador, and Henry E. Sanchez-Milian, 18, from Guatemala, were charged last week with raping their 14-year-old female classmate in the school’s men’s bathroom. Both had only been in Montgomery County for a few months before they were placed in the school’s 9th grade class. Sanchez-Milian is a confirmed illegal immigrant that is being detained by ICE officials while officials will not comment on Montano’s immigration status, as he is a minor.
Fox News’s Bret Baier was the first reporter to tell the story on national television on his show Monday.
Marsh asserted that the reason why “ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC, don’t want to report” the story is because “it makes their side look bad.” Curiously, she doesn’t ascribe any political motivation to Fox News’ report, even though “it makes the other side look bad” is much more plausible than the mind-reading she imposes on those other outlets.
Later on March 22, Houck complained that “The ‘big three’ networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC continued their shameful blackout into Wednesday night of the horrifying alleged rape of a teenage girl in a Washington D.C. suburb high school bathroom by two men, including one here in the U.S. illegally. Instead, the pathetic liberal media that’s shown no interest in the Rockville High School case complied with Rolling Stone in giving over 10 minutes of coverage in two days to the fake 2014 claim that a University of Virginia fraternity gang raped a female student.”
Houck didn’t mention that the networks did not know the story was fake at the time they reported it. He did concede, though, that it “can be a noble cause” to report on sexual assault at college fraternities. But he also touted how Fox News ran another story on the case; while he assailed those media outlets who didn’t report the story as “pro-illegal immigrant,” he refused to describe Fox news as “anti-illegal immigrant” for embracing it.
Then, the MRC was rewarded for politicizing the story: MRCTV ranter Brittany Hughes made an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” where she “lambasted ABC, CBS, and NBC for their callous refusal to cover the alleged heinous rape of a female student in a Washington D.C. suburban high school by two men and one of which is here in the country illegally.”
Hughes hit all her talking points — even ranting that the networks would rather be “slamming President Donald Trump’s agenda” — as the MRC post praised her for doing: “As we often do here at NewsBusters, Hughes astutely pointed to examples of what ABC and CBS gave airtime to instead of another crime allegedly committed by an illegal alien.”
It’s so funny — in a sad way — who the MRC pretends it doesn’t have an agenda in accusing others of having an agenda. But then, they’re not getting paid to be honest.