The Media Research Center has a new obsession: the purported Hillary Clinton uranium scandal.
Since Oct. 17, when it touted “new revelations in the scandal surrounding Russia’s obtaining control of American uranium and its payments to The Clinton Foundation,” the MRC has referenced it in approximately 60 posts, most of them screeching that the “liberal media” won’t cover the story. Crappy, biased, narrowly focused study on coverage that yet again somehow omits Fox News? Check. Brent Bozell ranting about the lack of coverage outside his right-wing bubble? Check and check.
Needless to say, the MRC didn’t mention that the lead writer of that article, John Solomon, is a right-wing journalist who once headed the Washington Times who is currently the head of the right-wing, Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned website Circa.
The MRC also won’t tell you that the supposed scoop here — that the Russian nuclear industry was trying to spread bribe money in America, and donated money to the Clinton Foundation, around the time that government officials were approving a deal for Russian interests to take over an American company that is responsible for 20 percent of the uranium mined in the U.S. while Hillary Clinton was still secretary of state — isn’t much of a scoop.
As the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple points out, Solomon’s story is filled with “preposterous conspiracy-mongering” and mostly rehashes claims first made public years ago, which basically amount to the Justice Department not sufficiently publicizing its conviction of one of the figures in the Russian bribery.
The Post has also pointed out other inconvenient truths that the MRC has ignored: for instance, that the Russian company in control of 20 percent of the U.S. uranium supply cannot for the most part export that uranium without a federal permit, which it doesn’t have, and that the U.S. generates only a tiny fraction of the world’s uranium supply, of which 20 percent is even more miniscule.
Further, despite all the right-wing innuendo, there’s still no evidence that Clinton played any role whatsoever in forwarding the deal past federal officials (the State Department was one of nine federal agencies that had to sign off on it), let alone the establishment of a quid pro quo in which Clinton acted in direct response to Clinton Foundation donations.
Of course, whenever it’s pointed out that there’s no there there, the MRC goes into freakout mode, insisting that anyone highlight that particular inconvenient fact is, as Kristine Marsh put it an Oct. 27 item, “defending Hillary Clinton.” And the MRC went a-Heathering against conservative Jennifer Rubin for pointing out that President Trump — and, thus, the MRC — were pushing the Clinton-uranium thing as a distraction from his own Russia troubles; Brad Wilmouth sneered that Rubin is “allegedly right-leaning,” as if one must sign onto everything Trump does and every single attack on Democrats no matter no specious to be a true conservative.
Ans, really, that’s the line on the sand the MRC has drawn here — all attacks on Democrats in general and the Clintons in particular are valid regardless of their accuracy, and Trump must be defended at all costs. That’s the MRC’s agenda these days.