We documented how the Media Research Center’s promotion of its agenda-confirming poll claiming that a majority of voters believe the media want a long coronavirus shutdown to hurt President Trump’s re-election chances failed to tell readers about the conflict of interest that the MRC’s pollster is shared with Trump’s re-election campaign. The MRC’s “news” division, CNSNews.com, didn’t do any better.
Managing editor Michael W. Chapman’s June 9 article on the poll reads like a the press release it is, and it still carries a “BREAKING” notice in the head despite it being long past breaking news, if indeed it ever was:
A new survey released this morning shows that 59.8% of likely voters, liberal and conservative, believe that “some members of the media” would like to see the coronavirus shutdown drag on so that “it hurts” President Donald Trump’s chances of reelection in November.
“This is just more evidence of how at odds the American liberal media are with the American public,” said Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell. “Honest journalism has been replaced with leftist advocacy. Even in these divisive times, both conservatives and liberals can agree on one thing: the media have it out for President Trump.”
Not only did Chapman fail to disclose that the pollster the MRC used, McLaughlin & Associates, is also on the payroll of the Trump re-election campaign — raising questions about the veracity of the poll, given the partisan motivations of those behind it — or that McLaughlin has an atrocious polling record, he also failed to supply the basic disclosure of the fact that the MRC is CNS’ parent.
Chapman loves to load up the items he writes with lot of images, but this time he threw in a shot of CNN anchor Don Lemon for no apparent reason; he’s not mentioned anywhere in the article.
Chapman keeps demonstrating that the “news” outlet he manages cares more about being a pro-Trump stenographer and less about news.