Olbermann Lashes Out at MRC: 'Inventing Liberal Bias Since 1987' --6/29/2006

Brent Baker

June 29, 2006 - 1:00am

1. Olbermann Lashes Out at MRC: 'Inventing Liberal Bias Since 1987'
On Wednesday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann set a new standard for spin that would even make the famous Black Knight character from Monty Python's Holy Grail blush. Reacting to the MRC's recently released study documenting Olbermann's overwhelming 8 to 1 bias toward attacking many conservatives but very few liberals during his show's regular "Worst Person in the World" segment, Olbermann tagged the Media Research Center as a "rabid right-wing spin group," as he mocked the study and concluded that since most of his targets were not political, "I'd like to thank the MRC for confirming my point that the segment is apolitical." Olbermann's slam came in his regular "Top Three Newsmakers" segment, during which the screen displayed an image of the MRC's logo with the words "Media Research Center: Inventing Liberal Bias Since 1987" on screen. Minutes later, Olbermann brazenly chose conservatives, including MRC President Brent Bozell, as all three of his "Worst Person" nominees. AUDIO&VIDEO [1]

2. Do You Have a Bad-News Bias If Your Iraq Book Is Titled 'Fiasco'?
Washington Post defense reporter Thomas Ricks is one of several Post reporters with Iraq books hitting the market. But the title of his book, coming out in July, sticks out. It's Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. I wonder if Post readers might not think in the day-to-day reporting on Iraq that Ricks is going to display a pronounced bad-news bias. The book description on Amazon suggests "caustic" is a word that fits this book's tone.

3. The View's Star Jones: Nearly Ten Years of Liberal Advocacy
Star Jones has been fired from ABC's daytime show run by Barbara Walter, The View. Numerous media outlets reported on the behind-the-scenes drama that has engulfed the ABC show. Several reasons have been given for the departure. Many speculate it was due to her feud with incoming View host Rosie O'Donnell or that it's related to her sudden weight loss. Whatever the truth is, one thing is certain: Throughout the years, Jones, a former legal correspondent for Today and NBC's Nightly News, has been a constant source of liberal advocacy.

4. "Top Ten Things Overheard Backstage at 'The View'"
Letterman's "Top Ten Things Overheard Backstage at 'The View.'"

Olbermann Lashes Out at MRC: 'Inventing
Liberal Bias Since 1987'

On Wednesday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann set a new standard for spin that would even make the famous Black Knight character from Monty Python's Holy Grail blush. Reacting to the MRC's recently released study documenting Olbermann's overwhelming 8 to 1 bias toward attacking many conservatives but very few liberals during his show's regular "Worst Person in the World" segment, Olbermann tagged the Media Research Center as a "rabid right-wing spin

[2]| [3]| [4]
More See & Hear the Bias [1]

group," as he mocked the study and concluded that since most of his targets were not political, "I'd like to thank the MRC for confirming my point that the segment is apolitical." Olbermann's slam came in his regular "Top Three Newsmakers" segment, during which the screen displayed an image of the MRC's logo with the words "Media Research Center: Inventing Liberal Bias Since 1987" on screen. Minutes later, Olbermann brazenly chose conservatives, including MRC President Brent Bozell, as all three of his "Worst Person" nominees.

[This item, by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth, was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [5] ]

For the Media Reality Check study released on Tuesday, "The 'Worst' of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann: 3rd Place Cable Host Uses 'Worst in the World!' Segment to Savage Conservatives & His Competitors," go to: www.mrc.org [6]

As Olbermann vaguely described the MRC's "Worst Person" study, he omitted the central finding that Olbermann's attacks on conservatives outnumbered attacks on liberals by a staggering 174 to 23 margin, or more than 8 to 1. Instead, he argued that "only" 174 out of 600 targets were conservative, refusing to reveal that a mere 23 were liberal, and, employing his own brand of loopy logic, argued that because 71 percent of the nominees were not conservative, that the study proves the segment is "apolitical."

But just 20 minutes after his insistence that Worst Person is "apolitical," Olbermann delivered an all-conservative lineup when he recited the day's Worst Person nominees, including conservative radio host Glenn Beck, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, and, as "Worst Person in the World," the MRC's Brent Bozell.

The attack on Bozell was motivated by a recent press release from the MRC (www.mrc.org [7] ) as well as e-mails sent to him from some MRC supporters, in which Olbermann was criticized for dismissing the newsworthiness of WMD discoveries in Iraq by branding them "weapons of minor discomfort" because of their degraded nature. Some conservatives have argued that because the media have often reported simplistically that "no" weapons of mass

[8]| [9]| [10]
More See & Hear the Bias [1]

destruction were found in Iraq, many on the far left who believe Saddam Hussein never had any weapons of mass destruction have had those beliefs fueled, and so therefore an accurate reporting that some WMD were found, even if they are degraded, is still worthy of reporting.

After tagging the Media Research Center, for a second time, as a "rabid right spin machine" (though he twice misidentified the MRC as the "Media Research Council"), Olbermann relayed that he had received "impotent emails that make everybody here laugh," and again insisted that, regarding WMD in Iraq, "there weren't any." He also attacked Senator Rick Santorum's integrity and branded those who believe him as "sheep." Olbermann: "There weren't any, Rick Santorum tried to pretend there were, and if you believed him, you may actually be a sheep. Thanks for writing!"

Below are transcripts of relevant portions from the Wednesday, June 28 Countdown show:

# Olbermann, at 8:28pm: "Here are Countdown's 'Top Three Newsmakers' of this day. Number three, the rabid right-wing spin group, the Media Research Center, which studied our 'Worst Persons in the World' segment for the last year and discovered that of approximately 600 nominees, only 174 of them were conservative. That means roughly 71 percent of the Worsts are not conservative. I'd like to thank the MRC for confirming my point that the segment is apolitical."

# Olbermann, during the Worst Person segment: "But the winner, Brent Bozell. Red Beard. Again. From the rabid right spin machine, the Media Research Council. He has targeted this show now for his latest 'MRC Action Alert.' You know, sending us impotent emails that make everybody here laugh. Our inbox now has literally dozens of them demanding that we, quote, 'tell the truth about the WMD that were found in Iraq.' Okay, we'll do it again. There weren't any, Rick Santorum tried to pretend there were, and if you believed him, you may actually be a sheep. Thanks for writing! Brent Bozell of the Media Research Council, today's 'Worst Person in the World'!"

Do You Have a Bad-News Bias If Your Iraq
Book Is Titled 'Fiasco'?

Washington Post defense reporter Thomas Ricks is one of several Post reporters with Iraq books hitting the market. But the title of his book, coming out in July, sticks out. It's Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. I wonder if Post readers might not think in the day-to-day reporting on Iraq that Ricks is going to display a pronounced bad-news bias. The book description on Amazon suggests "caustic" is a word that fits this book's tone.

[This item, by the MRC's Tim Graham, was posted Wednesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [11] ]

From Amazon's page for the upcoming book by Ricks:

The definitive military chronicle of the Iraq war and a searing judgment on the strategic blindness with which America has conducted it, drawing on the accounts of senior military officers giving voice to their anger for the first time.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondent Thomas E. Ricks's Fiasco is masterful and explosive reckoning with the planning and execution of the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq, based on the unprecedented candor of key participants.

The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.

As many in the military publicly acknowledge here for the first time, the guerrilla insurgency that exploded several months after Saddam's fall was not foreordained. In fact, to a shocking degree, it was created by the folly of the war's architects. But the officers who did raise their voices against the miscalculations, shortsightedness, and general failure of the war effort were generally crushed, their careers often ended. A willful blindness gripped political and military leaders, and dissent was not tolerated.

END of Excerpt

The Amazon page: www.amazon.com [12]

Most Iraq books by Post reporters have come from Baghdad correspondents. Next up, in September, is Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life Within The Emerald City, also hailed as a "vivid and compelling anatomy of a fiasco." Earlier books are Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid and Tell Them I Didn't Cry by Jackie Spinner. Spinner's book still sticks out in my head from the Post's review, and this typical "neutral" reporter mantra: "I didn't become a journalist to serve my country," Spinner explains. "I became a journalist to serve the story." As the Washington Post book reviewer explained: "That means documenting the anguish of a country for which Americans now bear enormous responsibility."

The Amazon page with the quoted review: www.amazon.com [13]

The View's Star Jones: Nearly Ten Years
of Liberal Advocacy

Star Jones has been fired from ABC's daytime show run by Barbara Walter, The View. Numerous media outlets reported on the behind-the-scenes drama that has engulfed the ABC show. Several reasons have been given for the departure. Many speculate it was due to her feud with incoming View host Rosie O'Donnell or that it's related to her sudden weight loss. Whatever the truth is, one thing is certain: Throughout the years, Jones, a former legal correspondent for Today and NBC's Nightly News, has been a constant source of liberal advocacy.

For more on the behind-the-scenes contentions: www.nydailynews.com [14]

[This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Wednesday afternoon on our blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [15] ]

Just prior to the 2004 presidential elections, Jones recounted, on-air, her campaign appearances with Democratic candidate John Kerry:
"But I was with Senator Kerry on Friday night in Florida because you know that's a battleground state [video of her at a podium with a Kerry campaign sign and a still shot of Kerry with his arm draped around her]. And everybody is down there, I got a chance to give a speech to talk about why I believe what I believe. And then, we went from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and into Pensacola. And, Barbara, to me, your talking about South Africa reminded me of the people in Pensacola. People don't realize just how much poverty is in our own country. And there are people with no jobs, there are people with no health care, people who can't afford to buy their drugs, and I'm talking basic prescription drugs you might need, like insulin, every single day."

For more, check the November 2, 2004 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org [16]

That wasn't the first time Jones rhapsodized about supporting Democrats. The June 22, 2004 edition of USA Today featured this quote about Bill Clinton: "I'm a big supporter of President Clinton. And if there wasn't such a thing as the Constitution, I'd vote for him a third time."

Perhaps we can all be glad that there is, in fact, such a thing as the Constitution. Conversely, the (now) former ABC host expressed a distaste for Republicans as evidenced by the hectoring tone with which she greeted View guest Rudy Giuliani during the 2004 Republican convention in New York:
"Star Jones, a former NBC News reporter, proved she doesn't understand the fundamental premise of the Bush doctrine as she revealed she thinks his 'you're either with us or with the terrorists' formulation applied to whether U.S. citizens back Bush's policies, not to whether nations are on our side in battling terrorism. She lectured Giuliani: 'Don't question people's patriotism because they don't believe in the war.' Jones soon exclaimed: 'Do you believe that today? 'Either you're with the terrorists or you're with us' -- that's not American!'"

That's from the September 1, 2004 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org [17]

On January 22, 2003, Jones appeared yet again in the CyberAlert. Pro-life actress Jennifer O'Neill visited The View and Star did not hold back:
"But Jennifer, there is a difference between secrecy and privacy, and there are some women who say this is a matter of my business and my body and I need to make a choice that's right for me at this time....Suppose I am eighteen years old. I'm going to college. I was careless I made a mistake. My life is ahead of me and I have chosen that I want to terminate that pregnancy and I don't want to hear from you Miss O'Neill. In the first trimester, I make the decision in seven weeks. I don't want to hear the options. I've made an informed decision." See: www.mrc.org [18]

More recently, on June 5, 2006, commenting on The View, Jones dismissed those who support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage: "It's just something about taking the Constitution and playing around with it -- and this is a game right now. Because you know you can't pass it. You're going to spend all the money, spend all the time, generate the rhetoric...."

According to published reports, Star Jones has no new immediate projects lined up. Perhaps this is her opportunity to go back to the world of hard journalism? She certainly has the "proper" world view for such an endeavor.

"Top Ten Things Overheard Backstage at
'The View'"

From the June 28 Late Show with David Letterman, the "Top Ten Things Overheard Backstage at 'The View.'" Late Show home page: www.cbs.com [19]

10. "Is it worth pawning the crap she left in her dressing room?"

9. "And we thought the loud one would give us all the trouble"

8. "How about we say Star had to leave because she tested positive for steroids?"

7. "I haven't been this upset since Debbie what's-her-name left"

6. [nothing]

5. "Easy on the gin, Barbara"

4. "Is Hugh Downs still alive?"

3. [nothing]

2. "If any straight men watched this show, they'd really enjoy the catfighting"

1. "If I want to watch a couple of old hags whine, I'll watch Dave and Paul"

Friday night on the Late Show: Tom Brokaw, promoting "Global Warming: What You Need to Know," a Discovery Channel special set to debut on July 16.

-- Brent Baker, in Long Beach, California