We’ve documented the Media Research Center’s unseemly role as the PR agent for the lawyers who when full Klayman and filed a $250 political manifesto-cum-defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post on behalf of Covington kid Nick Sandmann. The MRC’s anti-media bloodlust has continued.
A March 4 post by Curtis Houck — headlined “Sandmann lawyers SLAM WashPost” — followed in the footsteps of colleague Nicholas Fondacaro’s unprofessional rage and gloated how Sandmann’s lawyers “ran The Washington Post through the wood chipper,” uncritically parroting how “The 445-word statement didn’t mince words, slamming The Post as having led ‘a mainstream and social media mob of bullies’ against Sandmann.” Ironically, Houck’s employer leads mobs against the media, but that’s apparently OK.
Houck kept up the violent imagery in a March 12 post headlined “Sandmann Lawyers Hammer CNN as ‘Facts Last’ Network ‘Bullying’ a Minor to Defend Phillips” (the URL indicates that Houck’s original verb was “vaporizes”). In it, he touts an appearance by the lawyers on Fox News (of course) in which they announced a similar lawsuit against CNN. As Fondacaro failed to do with the Post lawsuit, Houck doesn’t point out that the lawsuit is more of a political document than a legal one; as a more responsible, less media-hating outlet reported, the lawsuits are effectively pro-Trump political statements and not serious claims of defamation.
Instead, Houck gushed that “The lawsuit didn’t waste time in starting to build a case against CNN,” touted “eight other sections” in it and uncritically repeated the “damages” claim that Sandmann “is forced to live his life in a constant state of concern over his safety and the safety of his family.” You mean like how journalists are forced to live as a result of President Trump calling the media the “enemy of the people,” something the MRC thinks are “self-centered” for pointing out?
The MRC then got mad that CNN didn’t report that it was being sued. A March 20 post by Bill D’Agostino complained the channel hadn’t reported it;he served up the lawyers’ talking points that CNN engaged in “accusatory coverage” of Sandmann and was “pushing false narratives about the video,” when whined: “Considering CNN hosts found ample time to lecture others about hastily jumping to conclusions, their current refusal to so much as acknowledge this lawsuit against them is conspicuous.”
Two days later, D’Agostino acknowledged that CNN’s website did publish an article, then still complained that “CNN still has not given the lawsuit any televised airtime.” D’Agostino did note CNN’s statement that it “reported on a newsworthy event and public discussion about it, taking care to report on additional facts as they developed and to share the perspectives of eyewitnesses and other participants and stakeholders as they came forward,” though it seemingly contradicts his earlier attack.