The Media Research Center generated lots of content related to the death of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham — but instead of the WorldNetDaily approach of concocting conspiracy theories over it, the MRC focused on non-right-wing media failing to gush over him. First up was Mark Finkelstein:
Joe Scarborough phoned in to Sunday’s edition of The Weekend on MS NOW to share remembrances of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who passed away suddenly Saturday at age 71. Scarborough and Graham both entered Congress as part of the historic 1994 Republican Revolution class that reclaimed the House majority for the GOP.
But Scarborough couldn’t resist the opportunity to burnish his liberal street cred—while inserting a self-serving anecdote about Iran policy.
Jorge Bonilla grumbled in a July 12 post:
The shocking and untimely passing of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) forced the Elitist Media Sunday shows to scramble and adjust their programming. CNN’s Jake Tapper, though, did not let that stop him from injecting Trump derangement into his program.
Trump Derangement Syndrome pauses for no one’s death, not even that of a long-sitting U.S. Senator who always took the time to engage with the Elitist Media when many others did not. Tapper selected for Trump while recounting Graham’s service in the Senate, not taking into account his time in the House (where he served as a Clinton impeachment manager), his votes for Obama’s Supreme Court justices (Sotomayor and Kagan), and his support for “comprehensive immigration reform.” As far as Tapper was concerned Graham’s history began and ended with Trump: in a nutshell, 2016 and January 6th.
This limited view of history conveniently excises what many, including President Trump over the course of multiple interviews, consider to be Graham’s finest hour: his fiery defense of Brett Kavanaugh in the midst of Democrat attempts to keep him off the Supreme Court:
[…]This interesting discussion about what “a normal path” for CNN looks like encapsulates Tapper’s coverage of Lindsey Graham- marred by the pervasive Trump derangement that for so long has constituted “a normal path” at the Cable News Network- but is anything but. Trump Derangement Syndrome takes no days off- not even for the death of a Senator.
Nicholas Fondacaro groused in his daily hate-watch of “The View”:
Hysterical Sunny Hostin couldn’t bottle her crazy even for one day after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) passed away after succumbing to a sudden illness. After reading a screed from a rabid Graham hater, Hostin agreed that Graham had “betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.” Luckily, other members of the cast were able to temper their rabid animus for Graham and even shared fond memories.
Hostin opened her nasty comments by suggesting Graham had died isolated from his friends after he chose to throw his lot in with President Trump. She even cited former The View cast member Meghan McCain:
[…]Hostin continued to rail against Graham by citing the unhinged comments of former-Republican strategist Steve Schmidt and saying she agreed with his assessment that Graham was a traitor to the country he served:
Fondacaro didn’t mention that his employer reacted to the death of Peter Jennings by touting how its archives were “packed with documentation of liberal bias” from him, so he’s being hypocritical by condemning the show’s response to Graham’s death.
Finkelstein was similarly ignorant of his employer’s behavior, for he spent a post complaining that President Trump used Graham’s death to promote an agenda:
As a member of the Group Chat on Monday’s edition of CNN This Morning, Adam Harris, a podcast host at the adamantly anti-Trump The Atlantic, couldn’t resist injecting politics — and doing so in remarkably tasteless fashion — into the discussion of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death and legacy.
Harris began by recalling the “very sort of vicious campaign” of 2016, when Graham was running for president and trading barbs with Trump. The language was so harsh, Harris said, that if he used such language in a Group Chat, “I’m not necessarily coming back to the group chat after that.”
Moments later, the conversation turned to Trump’s warm words for Graham. Trump had noted that the senator was “full of vim and vigor” and pushing hard for the Save America Act right up to the end. CNN host Audie Cornish pointed out: “I noticed the president still managed to mention his chief priority right now, the priority that is inadvertently holding up almost everything else.”
Finkelstein when on to grumble that “it’s precisely that kind of tasteless attack on Trump that might score Harris future CNN appearances.” But was it as tasteless as the MRC promoting its agenda before Jennings’ body was cold?
Tim Graham whined in his July 13 podcast:
The most obvious occasion for civility in Washington is the sudden death of a public official. It shouldn’t be a time for score-settling and expressing glee. Lindsey Graham’s death led to both of these. They first called it a “sudden illness,” but it was later revealed as an aortic dissection, a collapse of a major artery.
MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and NewsBusters nightly-news analyst Jorge Bonilla joined the show to discuss the reaction.
Many Democrats paid heartfelt tributes to Sen. Graham, but several media figures couldn’t resist putting an anti-Trump spin on the occasion.
Graham too failed to note the fact that his employer trashed Jennings upon his death.