David Shuster, the Man Who Slammed 'Nutty,' 'Far-Right' Conservatives, Returns from Media Suspension
Former
MSNBC journalist David Shuster, who used his position as a supposedly
straight-forward journalist to slam "nutty," far-right" conservatives,
will return to the airwaves Wednesday night, guest hosting the Jim Bohannon radio show.
Shuster was "suspended indefinitely" on April 06, 2010 after it was
revealed that he was shooting a pilot for CNN, despite still being under
contract at MSNBC. The ex-anchor used his Twitter page to
announce the development and to inform that his guests for the day's
program will include White House spokesman Bill Burton and a UFO expert.
During his time at MSNBC, Shuster repeatedly slammed Tea Party
candidates, including on March 2, 2010, when he went after the
"right-wing fringe." On another occasion, he sputtered, "Plus, the nutty
rhetoric continues from Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele and Sarah
Palin....How offensive can Rush Limbaugh be?"
In a December 29 interview with the hard left Daily Kos,
"Sgary" assured readers that Shuster had a new project lined up for
2011 and that it would be of "major interest to progressive news junkies
like myself."
One
of the standard segments on Shuster's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue program
was called Hypocrisy Watch. Shuster billed the piece as going after an
"organization or person who clearly seems to be doing something that
makes the term appropriate." That, apparently, was code for simply
trashing conservatives, as a MRC study found:
Shuster's "Hypocrisy Watch" segments are hardly a nonpartisan exercise in speaking truth to power, but rather a lazy regurgitation of Democratic talking points. Of the 48 "Hypocrisy Watch" segments since the near-daily feature began January 14, nearly all (86%) blasted Republicans, conservatives and corporations. A mere eight percent - one tenth as few - targeted Democrats or liberals.
...
To make Shuster's list, it helps to be a strong conservative detested by left-wing bloggers. Radio host Rush Limbaugh has made the list twice, as have Governors Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin, Representative Michele Bachmann, and Senator Jon Kyl, all Republicans. Ex-Bush advisor Karl Rove was named five times, more than all of the Democrats combined.
For more examples of Shuster's bias, see this NewsBusters post.
- Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
