The Media Research Center’s Alexis Moutevelis Coombs complains in a Feb. 8 post:
President Trump spoke about important topics to our country like abortion, adoption and religious liberty at the National Prayer Breakfast, but his critics instead focused on a word slipup to bash and mock him on Thursday.
Delivering his speech, President Trump said, “Since the founding of our nation, many of our greatest strides—from gaining our independence to abolition of civil rights to extending the vote for women—have been led by people of faith.”
The White House transcript indicates that the president should have said “to” instead of “of,” in an unfortunate mistake.
[…]Liberals and their allies in the media quickly pounced, seizing the opportunity to make their headlines about Trump misspeaking, while ignoring or burying the rest of his speech, with Yahoo! News trumpeting, “Trump credits people of faith for ‘abolition of civil rights’ at National Prayer Breakfast” and USA Today crowing, “President Trump’s gaffe touts ‘abolition of civil rights’ at National Prayer Breakfast.”
[…]Of course, all this trolling allowed them to ignore or bury Trump’s important words on abortion: “Children, born and unborn, are made in the holy image of God. Every life is sacred and every soul is a precious gift from heaven, as the Lord says.”
Coombs is, of course, being hypocritical — the MRC had no problem with hammering on President Obama when he misspoke, and it had no problem focusing on certain remarks it didn’t like during Obama’s appearances at the National Prayer Breakfast while ignoring his overall message on “important topics.” But Coombs is also dictating coverage here by telling media outlets what she and the MRC want to have covered.
Of course, the MRC has a whole “news” operation to conform to those expectations. And CNSNews.com’s Melanie Arter did, in fact, write an article on Trump’s speech to Coombs’ specifications:
In a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. must “build a culture that cherishes that dignity and sanctity of innocent human life.”
“As part of our commitment to building a just and loving society, we must build a culture that cherishes the dignity and sanctity of innocent human life. All children born and unborn are made in the holy image of God. Every life is sacred, and every soul is a precious gift from heaven. As the Lord says, in Jeremiah, ‘Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart,’” Trump said.
He also pledged to protect the “country’s long and proud tradition of faith-based adoption.”
Being the loyal Trump stenographer she is, Arter also makes no mention of Trump’s misspoken words.
What Coombs is really saying is: Why aren’t all media outlets servile pro-Trump stenographers like CNS? And that’s why the MRC’s “media criticism” really shouldn’t be taken seriously.