A key part of the Media Research Center method of “media research” is to go beyond the facts and pretend to the read the minds of media people to ascribe motive and convict them of thought crimes they can’t possibly know. One prime example of this is a March 30 post by Kyle Drennen:
NBC Worries Pandemic ‘Threatens’ Biden’s Campaign ‘Momentum’
On Saturday, NBC’s Today show took time to share one of the top media concerns in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic – that the crisis has hampered likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s ability to campaign. Meanwhile, the network broadcast fretted that daily White House briefings about the virus had provided President Trump with a “substitute for campaign rallies.”
“The coronavirus pandemic has temporarily transformed nearly every aspect of American life, including the race for the White House,” correspondent Geoff Bennett told viewers. He then declared: “And with President Trump seizing the national spotlight day by day from the White House, the Democratic candidates have had to find new ways to connect with voters.”
Bennett lamented: “For President Trump, daily briefings are now his daily substitute for campaign rallies…The President, who initially downplayed the virus’s impact, boosting his re-election bid by blanketing the airwaves.”
The fawning segment highlighted how Biden “holds virtual press briefings” and even “appeared on a digital edition of Jimmy Kimmel.”
Drennen’s claim that NBC “worries” or “fretted” about the pandemic’s effect on Biden’s campaign or the reporter “lamented” the situation is pure manufactured speculation on his part. He cannot possibly know the motivation of the people of the segment, so he assigns them based on the MRC’s right-wing narrative that all journalists who aren’t blatantly conservative are “liberal” and, thus, targets.
Similarly, Drennen’s description of the segment as “fawning” is also entirely subjective. The MRC thinks any news segment lacking right-wing criticism of a non-conservative is “fawning.” It would never describe a Fox News segment that praised Trump as “fawning.”
This sort of fictional, agenda-driven labeling is why the MRC’s “media research” is not to be taken as face value and should be treated as the political activism it is.