The MRC's Double Standard On Election Coverage
The Media Research Center ranted that interviews with Kamala Harris were edited -- but said nothing when Fox News and Newsmax edited interviews with Donald Trump and others.
The Media Research Center has an extremely long history of engaging in double standards — refusing to hold right-wing media like Fox News and other right-wing outlets to the same behavior it demands from non-right-wing media. Already this year, ConWebWatch documented the MRC’s double standard in attacking anyone who dared voice anything even slightly critical of Israel while staying silent about the clear anti-Semitism of right-wing activist Candace Owens.
The 2024 election unsurprisingly brought that tendency out again. Jorge Bonilla wrote in a Feb. 18 post:
Interviews, especially those of candidates and elected officials with their ability to filibuster and avoid answering questions, are often edited for brevity and clarity so as to accommodate production demands. But then there are those interviews that, upon further review, leave one with no other conclusion that they were edited in order to spare the interviewer further embarrassment. Such is the case of Senator Tim Scott’s (R-SC) appearance on CBS’s Face The Nation.
An example of such editing is Sen. Scott’s response when asked about Nikki Haley’s son’s characterization of him as “Judas”. Compare what made it to air with what got cut out, which is the decolorized of the video below and bold portion of its transcript (click “expand”):
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In this case it is notable, but not at all surprising, that CBS chose to air only the politics portion of Scott’s response to being called “Judas”, but not the Christian forgiveness portion with its appropriate Biblical citation. Consider that the network that about a year ago had no compunction airing Sam Smith’s degenerate and satanic-adjacent performance of “Unholy” on the Grammys thinks “love thy enemy” is unfit for broadcast.
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Overall, the transcripts show that Costa was schooled at each and every turn. It wasn’t the interview that was edited for clarity and brevity, but CBS’s embarrassment.
Of course, Bonilla is simply reading his right-wing anti-media bias into the edits and has no evidence whatsoever that the edits were done because Costa was being “schooled.”
By contrast, neither Bonilla nor anyone else at the MRC offered any complaints about edited interviews in right-wing media. Around that time, Newsmax was caught making misleading edits:
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen was portrayed as endorsing conservative-promoted laws in Florida and Texas designed to inhibit social media platforms’ ability to moderate content when, in fact, the full video showed that Eisen was simply rehashing their lawyers’ argument, which he actually called “an extreme view of the law.”
A segment of a Newsmax interview with Republican Sen. Mike Lee expressed his opposition to U.S. funding for Ukraine was removed, apparently on orders of CEO Christpher Ruddy. Newsmax employees told Mediaite that Ruddy routinely interferes with editorial judgment on certain subjects, such as Qatar, whose royal family has invested in Newsmax.
The MRC has been silent about this. Then again, Newsmax has granted the MRC regular appearances on its TV shows in which its talking heads repeat their employer’s anti-media talking points du jour — appearances in which guests holding a different viewpoint have been forbidden from talking part. The MRC is never going to bite the hand that feeds it by holding it to the same scrutiny it imposes on non-right-wing outlets.
Fox News double standard
After Kamala Harris made an appearance on “60 Minutes,” the MRC’s double standard reappeared. Jorge Bonilla actually praised the interviewer’s work in an Oct. 7 post because he thought Harris slipped up:
The 60 Minutes interview was supposed to be a cornerstone of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s much-ballyhooed “Media Blitz”, featuring such tough interviews as The View, Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert, and the Call Her Daddy podcast. Instead, it may have turned out to be a millstone.
Here CBS’s Bill Whitaker performed a journalism- a practice that seems archaic these days. There were questions asked, and the expectation that these questions would be met with an answer.
The interview began with a question on October 7th, and America’s relationship with Israel. Harris tries to split the baby by calling for a ceasefire and emphasizing America’s relationship with Israel but also distancing herself from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Several things stick out from this interview: other than being perhaps a bit too chummy with Walz, Whitaker did his job. He pressed Harris on a number of issues in a way that the Regime Media had not done over the course of this compressed campaign. Harris, on the other hand, showed why the Regime Media failed by allowing her to run a Plexiglass Basement campaign until a month before the election. Her non-answers on her economic proposals and on immigration expose her. Her continued bookings on friendly outlets where she is guaranteed to get a tongue bath expose everyone else.
In an Oct. 9 post, Tim Graham joined with Fox News to work as the Trump Regime Media to hype questions about an edit in the interview and push a conspiracy theory:
Brian Flood and David Rutz at FoxNews.com reported that CBS aired two different answers to the same question on Israel in its 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. First they aired a word-salad answer on Sunday’s Face the Nation. But when the interview aired on Monday night, the answer was entirely different.
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Donald Trump’s campaign demanded CBS release a full transcript of the interview. Press aide Karoline Leavitt: “Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air? The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”
Graham pushed the conspiracy narrative again in his Oct. 11 podcast:
The toughest questions she faced came from CBS on 60 Minutes, and then it turned out that CBS manipulated their Kamala interview. A word-salad answer on an Israel question was previewed on Face the Nation on Sunday. But when the 60 Minutes special aired on Monday, there was a firmer Kamala answer. Where did that come from? Donald Trump, as well as MRC founder Brent Bozell have demanded CBS release the full transcript.
Days later, the right-wing conspiracy noise machine forced CBS to respond, and Graham spent an Oct. 21 post deeming it insufficient, deeming without evidence the interview edits to be “sleazy”:
CBS News put out a statement of self-defense on Sunday night about the obvious differences in editing of their Kamala Harris interview. The word salad aired in a Face The Nation promo didn’t match the shorter, more coherent answer that aired the next night on a 60 Minutes special.
It began like a PolitiFact evaluation: “Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.”
If the two different answers aren’t “deceitful,” they’re sneaky. The one in the program clearly makes Harris sound more in command of the English language than the larger answer did.
CBS insisted it was “Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response.” But CBS still refuses to release the full transcript (or partial transcript of this specific question and answer), which can only arouse suspicion. Let’s just guess they cued her up for a second try at the answer.
Graham hyped it again in his Oct. 22 podcast:
On Sunday night, the the 60 Minutes team at CBS News put out a statement of self-defense about their sneaky or sleazy editing of their Kamala Harris interview special. The word salad aired in a Face The Nation promo didn’t match the more coherent answer that aired the next night.
CBS claimed “Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.” But CBS News has yet to release an unedited video or full transcript of the interview, which would put these matters to rest. The radioactive fact that they won’t simply release the full reality here signals that it’s not going to make either CBS or Kamala look good.
In his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, Brian Stelter’s headline was “60 Minutes refutes Trump.” Rebut, maybe, but not refute. Stelter wrote: “For a long while CBS declined to comment on the dispute, but last night CBS responded to his hot air with a cool-headed statement. The network did not admit to any screwup. Trump will surely keep talking about this on the trail since it plays into they’re-all-out-to-get-us narrative.” So CBS isn’t out to beat Trump and elect Harris?
Graham’s boss joined the echo chamber (while already in the Fox echo chamber) in an Oct. 22 post:
MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared on Monday night on the Fox Business program Evening Edit to discuss CBS refusing to release a transcript of its deceptively edited Kamala Harris interview in a Monday night 60 Minutes election special.
First, the CBS Sunday interview show Face The Nation aired a word-salad answer from Kamala on Israel. Then the Monday night special aired a much briefer, more coherent answer.
Fox host Liz McDonald asked “Who was it edited for? Was it edited for the viewer, or Kamala? And how about instead of releasing statements, why won’t they release the full transcript and footage?”
Bozell agreed: “So what’s going on behind the scenes at CBS? Who made the decision to edit it one way and then re-edit it another way after a backlash? Was it the staff that did it? Did the Kamala Harris campaign call them and say ‘that’s not what we want. We want you to air another part.’ We don’t know. Release the transcript.”
The same day, Craig Bannister was let out of the ruined remains of what was the MRC’s “news” division to peddle a dubious poll:
Nine in ten voters say CBS should release the full transcript of its October 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris which the network edited before airing in an apparent attempt to present Harris’s comments in an unrealistically favorable manner.
CBS issued a statement this week denying allegations that it deceitfully edited Harris’ answers to questions – but, it obdurately continues to refuse to release the full video and transcript of the interview.
By releasing the full transcript of the October 7, 2024 interview, CBS would enable the public to judge whether or not the edits made before airing were biased and made to dishonestly portray Democrat Presidential Candidate Harris’s remarks.
And, Americans overwhelmingly do want to see for themselves what actually took place in the CBS interview, a CAPS/Harris survey finds.
Graham lashed out anew at “60 Minutes” in his Oct. 23 column:
On October 20, the 60 Minutes squad put out a statement dismissing Donald Trump’s accusations of manipulative editing in their Kamala Harris interview as “false.” But they offered no evidence in support of their claims.
Everyone can see the divergence between the Harris word salad that appeared in a promo on Face the Nation and the shorter, more coherent answer on their election special. But they refuse to release a transcript to explain themselves. It’s always maddening when the arrogant journalists who claim they hold government accountable refuse to be accountable.
Nobody in TV news has been more overpraised than 60 Minutes. This horde of urbane leftist snobs has concocted syrupy minutes for Democrats (especially Barack Obama) and salty minutes for Republicans (especially Trump).
Geoffrey Dickens echoed the narrative in a post the same day: “On October 20 CBS News issued a defensive statement on their sleazy edit of their 60 Minutes interview with the Vice President, insisting they did nothing wrong. But their deceptive cutting up of video — to make Kamala Harris look better — isn’t the only way they’ve been aiding the Harris-Walz campaign. Five brand new Harris controversies have unfolded in October which CBS News has completely ignored.”
By contrast, when the MRC’s favorite right-wing TV channel did something similar for the MRC’s favorite presidential candidate, it was silent. As an actual media outlet documented:
The Fox News Channel’s recent segment about Donald Trump’s “surprise” visit to a barbershop in the Bronx resembled a campaign ad for the former president’s reelection.
Trump was seen taking questions and making small talk with Black and Hispanic barbershop customers and workers, some of whom were wearing “Make Barbers Great Again” shirts. The visit was part of “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones’ ongoing barbershop interview series.
But the version of the visit shown on television was, to borrow a hairstyle metaphor, a crop cut. Fox edited out many of Trump’s rambling comments and false claims. Participants had to repeatedly follow up when Trump meandered away from the original point of their questions.
CNN reviewed a more complete video of the barbershop visit that was uploaded to Instagram on the day of Trump’s appearance in the Bronx and compared it to the segments that were shown on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
Fox’s edits omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations – a striking decision given Trump’s recent attacks on CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” for editing an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, earlier this month.
The MRC completely censored mention of this edit (which one might call “sleazy”) — heck, it didn’t even mention the event at all — and it certainly didn’t trot out Bozell to demand that Fox News release a full transcript of the entire interview.
That’s yet another reminder that the MRC cares nothing about “media research” and everything about being Regime Media for Trump.
Town hall double standard
The Media Research Center’s pattern of obsessively nitpicking Kamala Harris’ media appearances continued for her Oct. 23 town hall on CNN. Jorge Bonilla led kicked things off:
CNN hosted Vice President Kamala Harris on what had been originally proposed as a debate that was rejected by former President Donald Trump. With the floor to herself, would Harris sink or swim? Would host Anderson Cooper try to tip the scale? And would CNN allow some Democrat ringers to slip through the cracks? We watched so you wouldn’t have to.
The town hall began with Cooper asking Harris what she would say to Trump voters who aren’t swayed by her messaging. Harris proceeded to double down on it.
As with Curtis Houck’s attack on Harris’ interview with Howard Stern, Bonilla littered his post with edited, cherry-picked clips of Harris that he originally posted on his personal Twitter/X account — 22 in all. He concluded by huffing:
Harris doubled down on specific policies when pressed. As is often the case, Harris is most passionate about abortion, This town hall was not the exception.
Cooper’s followups were notable for the non-responses or spin they would elicit from Harris. But, for most part, Harris was allowed to speak freely. There were occasions where Harris merited a fact-check from the crowd. For example, Harris claimed that law enforcement officers died on January 6th, but that is simply not the case. Harris was also given wide berth to repeat hoaxes such as “suckers and losers”, among others.
Early analyses on CNN indicate that the Regime Media are dissatisfied with Harris’s performance. There are 12 days left to Election Day, and diminishing opportunities for the Regime Media to prop Harris up.
Tim Graham further whined about the Harris town hall in his Oct. 24 column:
The ideal of a “town hall meeting” where citizens can spontaneously ask politicians the questions they would like answered doesn’t match what the “town hall” is in today’s politics. There’s too much risk for politicians, or the TV networks who platform the event.
A humorous example came on October 21 at a “town hall” with Kamala Harris and her ally Liz Cheney. An audience member asked ex-NBC reporter Maria Shriver if they could ask questions. “You’re not, unfortunately, we have some pre-determined questions,” Shriver said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to ask some of the questions that might be in your head.” Harris took only three of those pre-determined questions in an hourlong event.
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On October 23, CNN aired a town-hall event with Kamala Harris, and the difference was obvious from the first few minutes. Anderson Cooper asked his first question – you call Trump unhinged, but he’s now popular than he’s ever been. Harris bloviated a 500-word answer. Cooper asked Harris if she thought Trump was a fascist, and she said yes for 300 words, without interruption.
Calling Trump a “fascist” was apparently not an occasion for “fact checking in real time.” Fact-checking Daniel Dale skipped it afterward.
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Most of the post-game show was typical liberal analysis, with a blip of David Urban here and a moment of Scott Jennings there. Jennings had enough time to sum up the night. She was “empty, empty, empty. If she were an animal, she’d be a duck-billed platitude.”
If Kamala Harris failed to “make the sale” on CNN, no one should blame CNN. They gave her a blandly promotional platform to smear her opponent as a fascist, then praised her afterward for her fervid fascist blather. Hating Trump defines CNN.
The next day, Graham’s boss whined further about the town hall on a Fox Business safe space:
On Friday, MRC founder and president Brent Bozell went on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Company to discuss Kamala Harris’s Wednesday night CNN Town Hall.
Bozell pointed out that, ironically, Harris’s media blitz appeared to have exacerbated the very problem that it supposedly had been intended to fix — her flagging poll numbers.
“She wanted a basement strategy; she got away with it for a long time,” Bozell began. “[But] ultimately, even her base started saying, ‘enough is enough, you’ve got to come forward and let us know what it is you’re going to do.’”
“Now you know why she had a basement strategy,” he continued. “She’s awful! She’s just awful where it comes to making a presentation. She can’t give a coherent answer.”
By contrast, the MRC almost totally ignored Donald Trump’s town hall on Fox News a week earlier. The only mention of it is an Oct. 17 post by Alex Christy whining that Jimmy Kimmel pointing out the softball treatment that Fox News gave him:
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel showed a stunning lack of self-awareness on Wednesday as he accused Fox News of conducting a “North Korea-level” town hall with Donald Trump.
After playing a montage of various Fox personalities praising Bret Baier’s interview with Kamala Harris, Kimmel reacted to Trump’s response with an interesting use of the word “us.” “Alright, save it for the post-show orgy, everybody, come on now. They all sit there in fear, imagining Donald Trump on the toilet watching them. Trump said Fox has grown ‘so weak and soft’ on the Democrats. Which is true. They barely accuse us of eating babies anymore.”
Speaking of Harris, Kimmel added, “You remember when Trump was complaining that Kamala Harris wouldn’t sit for interviews? Now she’s on TV more often than those Jardiance commercials.”
However, “while Trump was hammering Fox for being too fair to his opponent, this is the grilling he got earlier today from Fox right from the start at his pre-taped all-women town hall.”
Kimmel then played a clip from the town hall where a woman began her question about illegal immigration, “Dear President Trump, thank you so much for everything you have done for this country. You fought for us in the past, you are fighting for us right now, and I know you will fight for us in the future.”
Kimmel replied, “So, some hard-hitting stuff going on there. This is like North Korea-level propaganda. This is a hand-picked audience of Trump-loving women in Georgia.”
Christy responded to this by having a hissy fit, declaring that Kimmel is not allowed to be a comedian and also critique politicians: “The comedians cannot have it both ways. They can either be the court jester who just clowns around or they can portray themselves as serious political thinkers who use jokes instead of lectures or long-winded essays to educate their audience on issues they care about, but they cannot do both.”
With that fit of whining, Christy obscured the fact that Kimmel was right — indeed, he made no effort to dispute Fox News’ kid-glove handling of Trump. The town hall was indeed filled with Trump supporters, something Fox News did not disclose to viewers; a Republican women’s group took credit for “hosting this event,” which it tried to walk back. Fox News also did some strategic editing of the town hall — something the MRC told us is a bad thing when done for Harris.
Christy’s post was unironically headlined “Irony Is Dead.” It seems he and MRC are trying to have it both ways, unleashing partisan anger at a candidate they don’t like while giving a Republican candidate and a right-wing media outlet a pass for doing the exact same thing. Now that’s irony.