In an Aug. 29 post, the Media Research Center’s Curtis Houck denounces the whole minor imbroglio over Melania Trump wearing stilettoes on her way to a presidential trip to visit victims of Hurricane Harvey. Houck insisted that this was “why people hate the media” and that the number of media outlets that reported the story “showed that many in the national and political media have no foresight for what actually matters.” Then he added:
Liberal media defenders can claim that such criticism is delegitimizing the news media and that’s not what NewsBusters is dedicated to be doing. Rather, we’re simply bringing to light stories like these in which the media have done themselves a disservice to the public.
Wrong. The MRC’s goal is exactly to delegitimize the news media — or, more to the point, any media that doesn’t mindlessly promote right-wing talking points. That’s why there is a Fox News-shaped blind spot in its media coverage (plus, it doesn’t want to alienate the main TV outlet for its talking heads).
If the MRC really cared about “stories like these in which the media have done themselves a disservice to the public,” where was its outrage when the right-wing media went crazy because President Obama put dijon mustard on his hamburger? Or when he mentioned arugula? Nowhere that we could find.
And if the MRC wasn’t trying to delegitimize the media, it wouldn’t be such a slavish acolyte to Donald Trump’s even more hateful anti-media rhetoric.
Yes, Curtis, the MRC’s job is to delegitimize any media that fails to advance a right-wing agenda. Until it can find it within itself to hold all media to account, let’s not pretend otherwise.