It wouldn’t be a real story at the Media Research Center if it couldn’t work a fit of Stelter Derangement Syndrome into the proceedings. Tim Graham has done this already in his employer’s Trump trial coverage, and he made another SDS contribution in a whataboutism-laden May 16 post:
As part of MSNBC’s never-ending Trump trial coverage, former CNN host Brian Stelter arrived on The Beat with Ari Melber on Tuesday to mock all the politicians and Fox News hosts showing up at the courtroom. Brian tweeted out his proudest soundbite.
STELTER: I’m just trying to imagine if any Democrats are going to show up at the trial of Bob Menendez, the senator, or or the trial of Joe Biden’s son Hunter — both of which are gonna happen in the next few weeks! And we’re not gonna see any of this, and that tells you everything you need to know about the differences between these two parties in 2024.
To which there is an obvious rejoinder: We’re just trying to imagine if any Democrat-servant networks are going to show up at the trials of Senator Menendez or Hunter Biden. No one expects they will be doing gavel-to-gavel coverage for those trials, and that tells you everything you need to know about the Democrat-servant networks.
Graham then found a way to bizarrely blame non-right-wing media for obsessive Trump supporters gathering outside his trial:
Stelter is trying to argue that Trump has a “cult” of celebrity, but it’s also true that the leftist media’s obsessive coverage makes it a more high-profile event for Trump supporters to show up and be seen. No Democrats will want to add any sliver of news-worthiness to the Democrat trials.
Trump has tried to turn these partisan prosecutions around, as he did with endless scandal probes while he was president. He doesn’t have the luxury of a broad media establishment that will bury embarrassing stories.
The pro-Trump right-wing media played no role in that? None at all? The victim narrative for Trump by the MRC and others didn’t help build a cult of personality around him that fed such obsession?
When Stelter accurately pointed out that the GOP lawmakers who showed up in Trump cosplay outside Trump’s trial “have nothing better to do, right? Than to sit around, and take their talking points from Fox,” Graham tried to downplay Fox News’ obvious right-wing bias:
Stelter added that “far right” networks like Fox News tried to ignore the trial, but the “big story” coverage of networks like MSNBC have forced them to acknowledge this is big. Once again, just like with the Pelosi-Picked Panel on January 6, Fox is going to carry some of the same “big stories” as the leftist press with a different spin. It’s a little harder to skip stories that 37 national media outlets are obsessing over.
It’s so cute how Graham pretends Fox News doesn’t have an aggressive right-wing bias but, instead, offers only “spin.” He’s also weirdly arguing that Fox News would have completely ignored the Trump trial and the January 6 panel if it hadn’t been shamed into covering it by non-right-wing outlets who understood (as Fox News and Graham apparently do not) that both stories are legitimate and worthy of coverage. Of course, shaming outlets into covering right-wing-friendly stories is a key part of the MRC’s anti-media activism. He’s also effectively admitting that Fox News won’t cover stories that make Trump and Republicans look bad if they can get away with it.
Graham seems to be giving away the game — and conceding that he refuses to hold Fox News to the same standards he hold non-right-wing media outlets. Some “media researcher” he is.