You will not be surprised to learn that Obama Derangement Syndrome at the Media Research Center has not really abated. Nicholas Spinnato groused in a Feb. 19 post:
On Monday night’s 11th Hour, guest hosted by Symone Sanders, Sanders and MS NOW contributor Jason Johnson reminisced the good days of the Obama presidency in response to Obama’s appearance on a progressive podcast. Johnson also pushed for Democrats to be harsher and not partake in “mealy mouthed, centrist nonsense.”
In an interview with progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama referred to the Trump Administration as a “clown show” and called protestors in Minnesota “heroic.”
Johnson responded to Obama’s comments with god-like praise:
[…]One might say Democrat rhetoric had gotten very uncivil and harsh already, with references to Trump as a fascist and attacks on Republicans over the years as Nazis.
We don’t recall Spinnato pointing that his employer has repeatedly labeled critics as “digital brownshirts” — which presumably he would do if he was genuinely concerned about likening people to Nazis.
Tim Graham devoted part of his April 8 column to rehashing years-old slights by the Baltimore Sun that made President Obama look good:
Liberals worry about non-liberal outlets investigating Democrats – especially when the politicians make up details about their life story. Wait, that is the Obama model – he made up a bunch of details in his memoir Dreams From My Father.
One funny [Maxwell] Tani line suggests The Sun only recently became opinionated, that it made a “transformation from a well-known, fairly old-school, by-the-book regional newspaper to a new, more ideological local media hybrid.”
More ideological? A few days before Barack Obama became president, the Sun posted a story headlined “Obama Traces Lincoln Steps On Way to Presidency.” In 2019, the Sun was the toast of the liberal media by attacking President Trump as “vermin” after he claimed no one wanted to live in Baltimore. In 2021, Sun media reporter David Zurawik suggested Fox News should be removed from the White House press corps. “Let’s take them on the word, let’s not let them on the plane. You want to let Proud Boys on Air Force One, no, I don’t think so. These guys are doing the same thing.”
Graham’s reference to the “Sinclair Sun” is the only clue he serves up to the fact that David Smith, a right-winger who also operates the Sinclair TV station group, bought the Sun a couple years ago and has tried to remake it into his vision. Recall that the MRC hates it when Smith’s ideology is pointed out. Instead, Graham whined: “Once again, liberal equals ‘trusted,’ conservative equals ‘propaganda.’” He made no effort to disprove that.
Spinnato played an Obama equivocation in an April 17 post:
On Friday’s CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish warned of the FISA extension with fears over President Trump’s “political investigations,” as she acted as if no political investigation were done under the Biden Administration. After Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project and member of the Media Research Center’s board of directors, mentioned the use of FISA to spy on the 2016 Trump Campaign, Cornish implied that the usage of FISA was fine since it went after an alleged Russian connection.
The discussion was led by Representative Joe Morelle of New York, who voted against a FISA extension due to fear of “overreach.”
Cornish interjected with “concerns” over a Trump administration’s usage of the system: “But can you understand their concerns, even given how they now view this Trump administration as one that is inclined towards political investigations?”
[…]Schilling said, “Oh, we hate it,” which Cornish responded to with “But I thought you wanted it after 9/11, right?”
Schilling mentioned the overlooked topic in the segment of the Obama Administration spying on the Trump campaign in 2016 for an alleged Russia connection:
[…]What Cornish failed to admit was that that Russian connection was falsified to deceive to the FISA court into giving them the warrant for Carter Page, as an inspector general report uncovered. The FBI knew Page was a source for the CIA but falsely claimed he was working for the Russians.
Spinnato curiously doesn’t mention that the 2016 Trump campaign had dozens of contacts with Russian operatives, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort gave internal polling data to another Russian operative, and that Russia rooted for Trump to win in 2016. Those inconvenient facts would have undermined the point he was trying to make, after all.