The Media Research Center’s Curtis Houck bitterly wrote in a Feb. 21 post:
As first reported back on February 9 by fellow former CNN colleague and Puck founding partner Dylan Byers, now-former longtime CNN senior political analyst and all-around tool John Avlon announced Wednesday morning that he’s running for Congress in New York’s first congressional district (anchored on Long Island) as a Democrat.
So, yes, the man who wrote the book Wingnuts decrying extremes in both parties and piously proclaiming he’s above the partisan fray is running as a far-left liberal. His campaign video launch was, as Ruthless co-host Josh Holmes observed, as though it were created by AI.
[…]So, with a vast NewsBusters archive going back decades, who exactly is John Avlon?
Seeing as how his side of the aisle appears set to respond to an order to redraw congressional districts by again trying to force through a map that’d swing from 15 Democrat seats and 11 Republican seats to 22 for Democrats and four Republicans, a supposedly ethical Avlon might have a record on this?
As we showed in October and November 2021 (here, here, and here), Avlon repeatedly decried gerrymandering….but only when Republicans did it.
How was Avlon went it came to more moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney? When he voted for the first Trump impeachment, Avlon foamed at the mouth over him as “a true profile in courage…who had wrestled with his conscience, who tried to think bigger than partisan politics, and ultimately kept faith with his oath, his promise to God.”
But in 2012, Avlon was part of a CNN segment that whacked Romney as “out of touch” for having a horse competing in an “elitist” sport like dressage at the Summer Olympics.
What didn’t Houck mention in his hit piece? That Avlon wiped the floor with his boss, Tim Graham, in a 2016 CNN appearance. As we documented, Avlon countered Graham’s rote right-wing ranting about the “liberal media” with a dose of reality. Avlon accurately called out Graham and his employer for years of kneejerk attacks on anything that’s not right-wing while giving Fox News a pass: “Look, the bottom line is you guys have a real credibility problem, and there’s a need for a place for you to call out whatever explicit and implicit bias exists on the left. But you sacrifice your real credibility because you’re only going to focus on one side of the problem, and that perpetuates the polarization.” He also pointed out that Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness levels were so low “in part because for 25 years she’s been demonized by partisan media.” Graham had no real answer for anything Avlon said, instead taking refuge in his usual mocking and sneering.
The MRC refused to tell readers just how completely Graham got owned by Avlon, and Houck is certainly not going to mention that now. Instead, he’s merely content to serve as the oppo research department for any opponent Avlon might have. After citing more MRC nitpicking of Avlon, Houck concluded: “Exit question: If Avlon can’t get the small stuff right like a cable news commentary, how will he do in running for Congress?” If Houck insists on hiding the full truth about Avlon because it reflects badly on his boss, the MRC is pretty useless at its claimed job of “media research” — and even pettier than it accuses Avlon of being.
Houck’s headline unironically called Avlon a “pompous prick” — even though that epithet much more accurately applies to Graham.