Perhaps the Media Research Center’s top go-to economist to reinforce right-wing narratives has been E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation — for instance, he’s helped the MRC target Target for not hating LGBTQ people enough, whined that a fact-checker criticized his work, helped the MRC trash the Biden economy and helped MRC writer Joseph Vazquez melt down over Paul Krugman. So when President Trump nominated Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics to replace Erika McEntarfer, whom he fired for not making economic numbers look positive enough — something the MRC championed — you’d think the MRC would be rushing to vocally hype his nomination and drag it toward the finish line, right?
Well, not so much — the MRC barely referenced it. Joseph Vazquez huffed in a Sept. 5 post that New York Times writer Ben Casselman criticized Antoni:
He proceeded to drum up propaganda over President Trump’s pick to replace McEntarfer, Heritage Foundation economist “EJ Antoni, a conservative economist with a history of distorting statistics to support his political arguments.” Did Casselman provide any examples to support his smear of Antoni, who was one of the few to call out publications like The Times for treating the Biden-Harris economy like it was the best thing since chocolate ice cream? Nope.
There were just two other references to Antoni’s nomination:
- A Sept. 9 post by Craig Bannister uncritically parroted a White House statement that revisions to job numbers “underscore the urgent need for Congress confirm E.J. Antoni, President Trump’s nominee for BLS commissioner, and begin the major reforms needed to restore Americans’ trust in the data after years of inaccuracy that has misled policymakers and eroded confidence.”
- Vazquez whined again in a Sept. 9 post that “Casselman recently published a screed decrying Trump for appointing Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni to eventually run the BLS.”
When Antoni’s nomination quickly ran into trouble from critics pointing out that he lacks appropriate managerial experience and is better known for being a Trump shill than an economist, the MRC said nothing. Then it was discovered that Antoni ran a now-deleted Twitter account that lobbed sexually denigrating attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, spread conspiracy theories and threatened Trump critics.
The White House ultimately pulled Antoni’s nomination at the end of September, presumably for the above reasons. The MRC stayed silent about that too.