It looks like the Media Research Center has gotten the first scalp of its revenge campaign: Reza Aslan had the second season of his CNN show “Believer” canceled following the shrill, partisan attacks by the MRC for comments made on his private Twitter account and not on CNN’s air.
A June 9 MRC post by Curtis Houck was quick to cheer the news, slamming Aslan as “an anti-Christian, far-left pundit.” Only in the right-wing world of the MRC would a scholar who wrote a book about the life of Jesus be considered “anti-Christian” and simply criticizing President Trump be considered “far-left.”
As expected, MRC chief Brent Bozell was also quick to spike the football:
America has sent an unmistakable message to CNN. We will not stand idly by while their so-called “religious scholar” smears the president of the United States and conservative leaders with obscenity-laden insults. MRC supporters generated an avalanche of over 7,000 phone calls to CNN this week demanding Reza Aslan’s removal. CNN paid attention and ultimately did the right thing — which they should have done immediately. When left-wing pundits and journalists use social media as a platform to slander those with whom they disagree, including President Trump, there will be consequences. It is reckless, sophomoric and unprofessional. Our campaign to hold the liberal media accountable does not end here. This is just the beginning.”
The “unmistakable message” we’re seeing, though, is that the MRC’s shrillness has been rewarded and it’s out for more blood. And that the MRC will never hold, say, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbuagh to same standards it held Aslan. And that the MRC’s goal is not to “hold the liberal media accountable” but, rather, to censor any criticism of Trump, no matter how justified.
The MRC is obsessively seeking out its next scalping victim as we speak. There’s no need to pretend there’s any principle behind it — it’s just a power play.