The Media Research Center loves to rant that news apps on phones won’t peddle right-wing spin on event like Don Lemon’s arrest and the Trump DOJ indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. So it’s not a surprise that the MRC would execute the same playbook on President Trump’s war in Iran. Luis Cornelio huffed in an April 30 post:
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth sent the media into a frenzy after comparing their anti-American smears to the Pharisees’ plot against Jesus. His point wasn’t far off, but he left out a key piece: the Big Four News Apps amplified that same narrative.
The Media Research Center found that since the day after the Iranian conflict began, Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News have launched a 50-day barrage targeting President Donald Trump and U.S. military operations against the Islamic regime with 634 articles from left-leaning outlets compared to a paltry 41 articles from right-leaning outlets. For example, Google News promoted a story from The New York Timesheadlined, “Trump’s Iran Threats Look Like Self-Incrimination for Potential War Crimes.”
Despite the unprecedented success of the U.S.-led action, the news aggregators’ curation of stories ensured that most Iran coverage in its top 20 morning editions from March 1 through April 19 came from left-leaning outlets, often using sensational, negative and fear-driven framing that undercut the United States and undermined the Trump administration’s efforts to win the war.
[…]In response to these findings, MRC President David Bozell said: “We’re looking at one of the most effective military campaigns in modern history, Iran’s navy crippled, its air force grounded, its leadership dismantled, yet the Big Four News Apps, alongside the elitist media, are working overtime to undermine President Trump. It should outrage every American that Trump and Secretary Hegseth are fighting an information war at home while preventing Iran’s regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Cornelio did not explain why Trump’s war deserves the biased pro-Trump coverage he demands. Once again, this so-called study utilized ratings information from AllSides, which we’ve documented has a clear right-leaning bias. Cornelio continued to huff:
MRC Vice President of Free Speech America Dan Schneider elucidated the point, stating, “Confusion around the world’s most one-sided battle is fueled by tech giants spreading anti-Trump propaganda. Secretary Hegseth commands the world’s greatest military, yet the Big Four News Apps and media push the Democrat narrative instead of acknowledging our troops’ success in eliminating threats. ”
[…]Another theme MRC identified was the consistent portrayal of Iran as muscular and defiant, even after the Trump administration and Israel annihilated much of its top leadership and severely degraded its military capabilities. Put together, these headlines read like outright cheerleading for a regime infamous for human rights abuses, threats against Western civilization and its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Actually, the fact that Iran remains viable in Trump’s war demonstrates it has not been as “severely degraded” as Cornelio’s mandated right-wing narrative would have you think.
Of course, the MRC’s nepo-baby president ran to a right-wing TV host to peddle those findings:
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo interviewed Media Research Center (MRC) President David Bozell about an explosive new (MRC) special report exposing extreme left-wing bias on the Big Four News Apps, Apple, Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
According to MRC, during the highly effective U.S. military operations in Iran, the Big Four news apps promoted 634 left-leaning and anti-American stories compared to only 41 pro-American pieces.
Bozell emphasized that these platforms function as “America’s front pages,” delivering news directly to users’ phones and computers. Fifty-eight percent of Americans now say they get their news from at least one of these four apps, which collectively drive massive monthly traffic to left-leaning news websites.
[…]Bozell and Bartiromo discussed how constant negative framing, selective story selection, and omission of context shape public opinion and polling far more than the policies themselves. Bartiromo noted that this toxic information environment can even shift the polls.
Bozell offered no evidence that any information in any story was false — it just didn’t offer the spin he demanded.