The Media Research Center has never liked “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King because she’s not a conservative and because she’s friends with Oprah Winfrey and the Obamas. The MRC’s obsession with King has really ratcheted up in the past month.
An Oct. 31 post by Curtis Houck sneered that King was a “Oprah Winfrey gal pal, and Obama donor and family friend” and complained about a “syrupy” and “gushing” profile of her in the New York Times. The next day, Scott Whitlock complained about “CBS’s Tangled Conflict of Interest With Oprah, Gayle King, and Democrats,” since Winfrey is also a CBS contributor by way of “60 Minutes” who occasionally steps away for political work.
Houck returned to claim there were “seven instances” in which King showed her “liberal bias” during her coverage of the midterm elections. These included King pondering whether celebrity endorsements helped Democratic candidates and pointing out the fact that many people don’t think President Trump was telling the truth when he fearmongered about the migrant caravan, neither of which are “liberal bias.”
On Nov. 12 Whitlock went on a tirade against both King and Winfrey:
Just 12 days after CBS special correspondent Oprah Winfrey “stepped away” to campaign for Democrat Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Winfrey is back on the network and you’ll never guess what she’s doing: Praising a Democrat. Winfrey’s best friend, Gayle King, introduced Oprah on Monday’s CBS This Morning to reveal the next book club selection: Michelle Obama’s new autobiography.
Just to reiterate, Gayle King, an Obama and Democratic donor, introduced Winfrey, an Obama and Democratic donor to talk about how great Michelle Obama’s new book is.
Whitlock also complained about King’s “lack of transparency”in not disclosing that she’s an editor for Oprah’s magazine — an ironic and hypocritical claim since the MRC’s own promotion of Bill Donohue regularly fails to disclose that MRC chief Brent Bozell is on the board of advisors of Donohue’s Catholic League.
Two days later, Whitlock had upgraded that “conflict of interest” to full-on “collusion,” grousing that “Democrat Winfrey and Democratic donor/co-host Gayle King have devoted 22 minutes and 44 seconds (since Monday) to the former First Lady’s new book, Becoming.”
And on Nov. 26, Whitlock returned to King derangement mode, this time managing not to include Winfrey or the Obamas:
CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King on Monday prompted Senator Bernie Sanders, hyping his liberal policy prescriptions and encouraging him to attack Republicans. None of the co-hosts bothered to identify Sanders as a socialist or even a leftist. Instead, co-host Norah O’Donnell introduced the leftist as a “political independent,” touting: “Sanders, who was just reelected as a political independent, is pushing a bold agenda that includes protecting DACA recipients and comprehensive immigration reform.”
Whitlock and the rest of the MRC is never this critical of Fox News hosts who have conflicts of interests and give gushy interviews to President Trump and other conservatives.