By now everyone knows about the “liberal media” — that’s in large part thanks to the Media Research Center, which is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary tonight in Washington, D.C. NRO editor Kathryn Jean Lopez chatted with its founder and president, Brent Bozell, on how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same.
Kathryn Jean Lopez: How does it feel to be 20?
Brent Bozell: Once we were young bomb throwers. Now we’re old bomb throwers. But so long as we remember how to pull the pin, and where to throw the grenade, we’ll be around for many, many more years.
Lopez: What’s been MRC’s greatest single moment?
Bozell: There have been many moments. Our greatest moment, I think, was being the first — through our CNSNews.com operation — to prove the CBS memos on George Bush’s National Guard service to be fakes.
Lopez: Who’s MRC’s inspiration? If you had to wave — maybe you do — one picture in the front of the faces of your young staffers — whose would it be?
Bozell: Again, many inspirations. But if I had to choose one, I’d point to the man who has never received the recognition he deserved as one of the greatest leaders of the modern conservative movement, and who encouraged me to launch the MRC: the head of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), the late John T. (“Terry”) Dolan.
Lopez: You do a lot of complaining. Have you seen it pay off when you look at journalism today?
Bozell: (Laughing) We don’t complain. We bitch. Actually, what we do is document the bias. They complain when we show this audacity. Sometimes it pays off in glorious, public fashion — like the canning of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes — but oftentimes it pays off quietly when you know — as often we’ve been told — that reporters are being far more careful simply because they don’t want to come into our gun sights.
When we began 20 years ago, a national survey showed that only 25 percent of the public thought the media were biased. Today that number stands at 89 percent. The establishment press has a massive credibility problem, and they’re all hemorrhaging viewers and readers. It’s no coincidence that the exception is FOX News.
Lopez: Do you get tired of being negative?
Bozell: Actually, yes. But we’re not negative by design. When you’re documenting, exposing, and confronting the liberal media’s daily jihad against the conservative movement, it can become tiring, but that’s why God invented vacations. The truth is, we also believe strongly in having fun. Our annual Dishonors Awards has become an institution in Washington. Our April Fool’s edition of Notable Quotables, wherein everything is made up, really ticks ’em off, much to our delight. The year that Garrick Utley’s producer at NBC called screaming at us, denying he’d taken to the airwaves to call for mandatory seat belts on shopping carts to prevent mid-aisle collisions — I still laugh at that today.
But then there are times one should be positive, too. What the liberal press did on that awful day, 9/11, and in the week or so following, showed us the news media at its finest, and to paraphrase Winston Churchill, reminded us that the American news media is the worst media in the world except for all the rest.
Lopez: How much do you owe Dan Rather for the fundraising he made possible?
Bozell: He put four of my children through college. Maybe now Katie Couric will fund my youngest boy.
Lopez: I like Terry Moran. I like Howard Fineman. I like Lisa Myers. Is this O.K.? Might I lose my VRWC card?
Bozell: Frankly, Kathryn, we’ve had our suspicions about — and our eyes on — you for quite some time. But you make an important point. It was Sam Donaldson, a man I consider a friend (and there goes my membership card), who impressed on me long ago: Always professional, never personal. There are many liberals in the media — O.K., maybe just some liberals in the media — who are genuinely nice people, good people. One can, and should, separate the personal from the professional.
Lopez: How much longer can you call it a liberal media out there?
Bozell: It’s an interesting question. Their numbers are crashing, but liberals still dominate the news media. The more interesting question is: How long will we have a news media, period? News is rapidly becoming infotainment, and with everyone galloping to the Internet, God only knows where we’ll be in five years. No one seems interested in real news any longer. There has to be a sex angle, or it’s just not “newsworthy.” Which is why I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that I am the father of Anna Nicole’s baby.
CONTINUED 1 2 Next >
