The Media Research Center was in a little bit of a controversy in recent weeks.
In early June, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens used his column to attack the idea of the MRC bestowing its annual William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence. Stephens declared that while neither Hannity nor the MRC were “particularly noteworthy,” giving an award named after Buckley — who had nourished a brand of conservatism that was “fundamentally literary — to a conspiracy-monger like Hannity ushers in the “post-literate conservative world.”
When Stephens ushered in his move to the Times from the Wall Street Journal a month before with a column questioning climate change, the MRC touted how Stephens made “liberal snowflakes” upset by it. But it stayed silent aout Stephens’ diss of the MRC’s planned award. A June 29 NewsBusters post by Randy Hall praised MSNBC for adding Stephens as a commentator — but he stayed silent about how Stephens bashed the MRC’s award.
Last week, however, CNN’s Jake Tapper broke the news that the MRC has decided not to give the award to Hannity, reportedly after Buckley’s son, author Christopher Buckley, “expressed great dismay” at the idea and contacted the MRC to express his disapproval. The MRC, meanwhile, was spinning it as a “scheduling conflict,” and Hannity had a Twitter meltdown over the revelation, insisting that he was “unable to attend.”
This is big news in the conservative world. But you won’t read about it on any MRC-operated website.
We found no reference to the controversy on NewsBusters, CNSNews.com or MRCTV. The main Twitter feed for the MRC, as well as the NewsBusters feed, also ignored it. The only mention we found was a single tweet by MRC chief Brent Bozell, in which he advanced the questionable scheduling-conflict storyline: “MRC awarded Hannity the Buckley award. Hannity subsequently told us he couldn’t make it. We chose not to hand out the award this year.”
In other words, the MRC got scooped on its own story and is trying to keep the truth from its own readers. It’s a reminder that the MRC hates the truth when it involves something unflattering about its fellow conservatives — and especially itself.