You Read It Here First: Coverage of MRC's Expose of Wisconsin Coverage Double Standard
Tuesday's Media Reality Check
documenting the broadcast networks' incredible double standard on
protests - how reporters zeroed in on inflammatory signs to try and
discredit the Tea Party while ignoring similar or worse signs at the
left-wing union protests in Wisconsin - garnered national media
attention.
On Tuesday evening, nationally-syndicated radio host Mark Levin cited the study as proving how the media "are
a disgrace, absolute disgrace. You did everything you could to trash
the Tea Party movement, and you do everything you can right now to
protect the vulgarity and poison of the Left and the thugs in Madison,
Wisconsin." (Full transcript and audio link below.)
On Thursday night, during the "Grapevine" segment of FNC's Special
Report, anchor Bret Baier led off with MRC's study:
Conservatives are alleging a double standard of media coverage of the labor protests. Signs have shown up in Wisconsin likening Republican Governor Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler and showing a target over his face with the slogan "Don't Retreat, Reload." The Media Research Center analyzed all news stories on CBS, ABC and NBC from last Thursday to Monday. It found eight of the 53 stories on the Wisconsin protest showed one or more of the questionable signs, but none elicited a remark from network journalists. However, MRC points out, in past months Tea Party signs were repeatedly denounced by the networks as uncivil.
The study was also cited by onetime CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg (now a frequent media critic) in his latest column, "The Lamestreams Strike Again - This Time in Madison," and was published on the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com page on Friday morning.
Towards the end of the first hour of his Tuesday radio program, Mark
Levin used the MRC study, which was also posted on our NewsBusters blog, to tee up a segment on the national
media's "disgusting bias." The audio is posted on MarkLevinShow.com (starts at 34:20); here's the relevant transcript:
You know, over at NewsBusters, Rich Noyes points out the incredible media double standard, the incredible media double standard in the treatment of the NEA and the AFSCME and SEIU unions in Wisconsin, and the Tea Party rallies. And it is disgusting.
But it's also useful, because the people have turned on the statist media. That's what I called it in Liberty and Tyranny - the statist media. The people have turned on them. They rate lower than proctologists - and I have nothing against proctologists, as long as your hands are small.
But, that said, the bias is just stunning. The media in this country want massive big government. The media in this country want the massive big government to control competitive sources and outlets of information - the Internet, talk radio, and so forth. The media in this country is part of this crony capitalist notion, where they're taken care of by the likes of John McCain and the late Russ Feingold - late in terms of politics, of course - who are just like incumbents - they're protected, while the rest of us are the subject of endless torment.
The media are not interested, for the most part, in reporting information. Period. And, they get - do you ever see them on these public television shows, or sometimes on C-SPAN, these old-timers talking about the new media: "There's no governors on them, there's no editors."
Oh, really? Well, you guys are a disgrace, absolute disgrace. You did everything you could to trash the Tea Party movement, and you do everything you can right now to protect the vulgarity and poison of the Left and the thugs in Madison, Wisconsin. How do you explain that?
Well, you don't care. You don't have to explain anything. That's why you're going down, too.
