MRC Press Release - Bozell: Bill Keller Must Go

Bozell: "ONE spoken reference to Spitzer as a Democrat by the big three networks over nine and a half hours of news programming. Pathetic."

ALEXANDRIA, VA - Monday afternoon, the story broke that Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) was a serial client of a top-dollar prostitution ring. On Monday night, again on Tuesday morning and yet again on Tuesday night, NBC, ABC and CBS all went out of their way to avoid saying that Spitzer is a Democrat.

NBC ran twelve segments on the Spitzer story - one on Monday's Nightly News and eleven on Tuesday's Today - and not once did they in any way label Spitzer a Democrat. Tuesday night? Again, no label.

No one on ABC said the word "Democrat" in reference to Spitzer on either Monday's World News Tonight or Tuesday's Good Morning America. Ditto Tuesday night. Their labeling of Spitzer was limited to a grand total of six seconds - split up into two clips - of a "D" after his name in a chyron at the bottom of the screen.

CBS's Katie Couric did say once that Spitzer is a Democrat on Monday's Evening News, but no one on Tuesday's Early Show did. Their labeling was also only visual - "D"s in two chyrons for a combined fourteen seconds.

The Associated Press broke the story Monday in a three paragraph report - NO label. They then came out with a full report, with all of the details - save one. Again, no mention that Spitzer is a Democrat.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell was hardly surprised:

"Another major scandal involving a liberal Democrat, another attempt by the media to hide the fact that the scandal involves a liberal Democrat.

"ONE spoken reference to Spitzer as a Democrat by the big three networks over nine and a half hours of news programming. Pathetic.

"This is not the first time the media have played dodge the "D". They repeatedly deleted it from Democratic Congressman Gary Condit during the prolonged investigation into the death of his intern and paramour Chandra Levy, and they are continuously leaving Detroit Democratic Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick politically unaffiliated in their reporting of his affair with his chief-of-staff.

"But anyone familiar with the Sen. Larry Craig scandal knows he is a Republican. Why is that?

To schedule an interview with MRC President Brent Bozell or another MRC spokesperson,
please contact Tim Scheiderer (x. 126) or Colleen O'Boyle (x. 122) at (703) 683-5004.