The Media Research Center did a lot of whining about “60 Minutes” allegedly editing an interview with Kamala Harris. That continued when MRC chief Brent Bozell appeared on Fox Business on Oct. 16:
On Wednesday morning, MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared on FBN’s Varney & Company to discuss the latest hefty backlash against the corporate media.
Varney first summarized CBS’s latest deceptive editing scandal:
“House Speaker Mike Johnson calling out CBS News for selectively editing his interview on Face The Nation. He posted a series of clips comparing what was aired and then the full answers he gave. He accuses CBS of working to undermine Republicans.”
“Did their professional integrity take a hit?” Varney inquired.
Bozell pointed out that CBS’s integrity has been under question for some time: “They have a rich history of this. Let’s go back; do we remember Dan Rather and RatherGate in 2004, when they tried to upend the Presidential campaign with a story that was a flat out lie?”
He added: “They’ve done this kind of stuff ever since. Kudos to Speaker Johnson for doing what so many Republicans won’t do, which is stand up to them and slap them back in the face.”
He also lauded Johnson’s advice to fellow Republicans: “Don’t do any taped interviews with these networks. You simply can’t trust them anymore to not manipulate a story. Make the interview live.”
There was no mention of questions about Fox News’ professional integrity — and certainly no mention of the biggest question, its lies about voting fraud after the 2020 presidential election and the resulting $787 million settlement with voting-tech company Dominion regarding those lies (about which Bozell made no public statement at his website and lackey Tim Graham argued that it won’t hurt the channel because viewers watch it to have their right-wing narratives reinforced, not to be informed with facts).
And Bozell’s rant about not doing “taped interviews with these networks” because “you simply can’t trust them anymore to not manipulate a story” turned out to be doubly ironic — a few days later, Fox News was caught editing out Donald Trump’s false claims and meandering words during a visit to a barbershop in the Bronx — adding to the rich history of deception at the channel that Bozell refuses to talk about.
Bozell returned to Varney’s show a week or so later, but he failed to discuss Fox News’ ethical blunders even as he has attacked CBS for doing the same thing. Of course, that silence is because he would never get invited to appear on the show again if he held all media to the same standards. That makes Bozell a coward and a hypocrite — and certainly not a “media researcher.”