A Feb. 10 NewsBusters post by Ken Shepherd begins: “Today marks the opening of the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Regardless of where you may stand on internal debates about some of this year’s co-sponsors, there’s no denying that for nearly four decades its been an enduring legacy of conservative political activism.”
Shepherd curiously didn’t mention that his employer and the operator of NewsBusters, the Media Research Center, has taken a clear stand on those “internal debates” — and it’s the opposite of the stand Shepherd is taking.
As we’ve noted, the MRC is boycotting CPAC this year over its inclusion of the gay conservative group GOProud — a fact it has yet to report in any straightforward fashion to its readers. It hasn’t even bothered to issue a press release to announce its decision.
The closest we’ve seen is a Feb. 9 NewsBusters post by Matthew Balan stating that CNN contributor Jon Avlon “erroneously included Capital Research Center” on a list of groups boycotting CPAC, parenthetically adding, “perhaps he meant the Media Research Center, the parent company of NewsBusters.”
It seems that the MRC’s dealings with CPAC — taking a bold stand by boycotting, but not terribly eager to publicize that stand — are nearly as cowardly and contradictory as that of WorldNetDaily.