Media Research Center
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The Media Research Center is another right-wing self-proclaimed "media watchdog" organization founded by perpetual crybaby L. Brent Bozell III to undermine the free press.
In their own words
“”The mission of the Media Research Center is to bring balance to the news media. Leaders of America's conservative movement have long believed that within the national news media a strident liberal bias existed that influenced the public's understanding of critical issues. On October 1, 1987, a group of young determined conservatives set out to not only prove — through sound scientific research — that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values, but also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene. What they launched that fall is the now acclaimed.[1]
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Ideology
- Homophobia and other positions of fundamentalist Christianity.
- Apologetics for Saint Ronnie, Dubya, Orange Man, and Fox News.
- Persistent racial hatred against Barack Obama.
- Xenophobia towards China, the Middle East, and any country that isn't the US, Russia, and North Korea.
- The evil media didn't cover all those Bill Clinton scandals.
- Jon Stewart is a big meanie and he's leading the War on Christmas, just like the 7,873 other guys who previously led it.[2] At least he didn't ban Christmas, which literal hardcore Christian Puritans did.
- Global warming denialism, as in any media source that doesn't run a global warming "skeptic" to counter scientists is clearly liberal; same for any media source that simply accepts global warming as real.[3]
- Creationism via CNS News.[4][5]
- "Hollywood is ignoring right wing audiences" due to the fact that a majority of Americans agree with the issues it cares about (I.e. marriage equality, women’s rights, climate change, etc.). Not to mention as in their hate of journalism, most conservatives don't care about art, but propaganda.
- Athletes and entertainers can't have political opinions when they do business with China, because communism! Never mind that most businesses nowadays have to have constructive relationships with China in order for the country to survive economically, because not having constructive business relationships with other countries is xenophobia.
Projects
The MRC runs a conservative-leaning "news" site, CNS News. Also the MRC's Business and Media Institute complains about how the media isn't 100% in line with the free market ideology, while at the same time demanding the government censor "smut". The Culture and Media Institute vents and reminisces for the good old days when gays had to stay in the closet, ladies saved themselves for marriage, and movies and TV weren’t made to reflect reality.
The MRC's blog is NewsBusters, with frequent rapid-response blog posts about the slightest suspicion of liberal bias in media. Given the views promoted by the MRC, it's best to avoid reading the comments section. Don't worry, ConWebWatch has screenshots and excerpts from CNS News comments sections so you don't have to give MRC more traffic to satisfy your morbid curiosities.[6][7]
MRCTV is another site originally intended as a YouTube alternative that now just seems to exist to churn out social media-ready clickbait and engage in circle jerk article sourcing with fellow MRC sites Newsbusters and CNS. The MRC is apparently now a self-perpetuating loop of conservative news content.
In 2018, the MRC created a gimmick called the "Free Speech Alliance," dedicated to whining about their perception that major internet and tech companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google are engaged in an effort to "censor conservatives and silence conservative speech."[8][9] The so-called alliance claims to be a coalition of at least 60 mostly unnamed "conservative organizations," including fellow conservative free speech whiners such as Prager "University".[10] The declaration that technology giants are engaged in a conspiracy theory to silence conservative voices marks the MRC as implicitly supporting right wing extremists who deserve to be de-platformed by social media.[11]
In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the entire world, the MRC absolved Trump of any blame and decided to blame China for not containing the virus; never mind that not only has China contained the virus early on after initially admitting their mistakes by denying how bad it was (although there are conspiracy theories from the right about them "lying" about their numbers)[12] but holding the Chinese government "accountable" increases stigmatization and violence against Asians and Asian-Americans, no matter how much conservatives deny it.[13]
See also
- Ben Shapiro, who has his own "media watchdog" page Truth Revolt and possess the amazing superpower of finding leftist propaganda in nearly every piece of information entering his visual cortex
- Accuracy in Media is even crazier than MRC, if you can believe it
- Parents Television Council is another right-wing "media watchdog" group founded by L. Brent Bozell
External links
- Warning, here be wingnuts
- Newsbusters, MRC's blog exposing liberal media bias using the sophisticated research technique of confirmation bias
- ConWebWatch, a site with articles criticizing the MRC
References
- ↑ About the Media Research Center
- ↑ Brian Tashman, MRC's Gainor Says 'Complete and Utter Scumbag' Jon Stewart Is Leading the War on Christmas, Right Wing Watch, 13 December 2012.
- ↑ Archive of posts tagged with "Global warming" at mrc.org.
- ↑ Evolution Just Got Harder to Defend by Eric Metaxas (September 14, 2016 10:59 AM EDT) CNS News.
- ↑ Creationist Ken Ham: The State Has Created 'The Church of Evolution With Darwin As The High Priest' by Michael W. Chapman (February 16, 2016 | 4:07 PM EST) CNS News.
- ↑ CNS Goes Bottom-Feeding for Readers, May 9, 2012. These comments are directed towards Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh's bigoted comments towards her.
- ↑ CNS Readers Spew Hate at Hillary, April 22, 2014.
- ↑ Free Speech Alliance at mrc.org.
- ↑ Conservative Leaders Call on Google to Explain Claims the Site Is Blocking Conservatives. mrc.org, 20 August 2019.
- ↑ Bozell Applauds Growth of Free Speech Alliance: 'Critical for Survival of Conservative Movement'. mrc.org, 20 September 2019.
- ↑ Terry Krepel, The MRC vs. Google. conwebwatch.tripod.com, 22 October 2019.
- ↑ [1],
- ↑ Stop the coronavirus stigma now. Nature, 25 May 2020.