Media Critic Has Sharp Words for Media's 'Radical' Style of News Reporting
by Chad Groening
July 29, 2004
(AgapePress) - One of the nation's leading media watchdogs says there is a powerful element of the media today that has gone beyond mere "liberalism" and has moved into "sheer radicalism."L. Brent Bozell is founder and president of the Media Research Center, based in Alexandria, Virginia. The group's stated mission since its inception in the fall of 1987 has been to "bring balance and responsibility to the news media." It uses scientific studies and word-for-word quotes from the media to combat what it describes as the "undeniable bias" of the media.
According to Bozell, a significant part of the media -- in its quest to promote liberal idea and philosophies -- has now gone even further and embraced the extreme radical fringe. "It is sheer radicalism; it is the 'Michael Moore Hate America' radicalism," he says. "That vein of the left can be found in the media as well."
The MRC founder cites an example of that anti-American radicalism that revealed itself in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
"Do not forget the infamous words of the Reuters News Service after 9/11, when they announced they were not going to use the word 'terrorist' to define the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center because 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,'" he says, quoting the news service. "There is that anti-Americanism; it's there."
According to Bozell, that sentiment exists at ABC News. He alludes to a more recent occurrence when that network's well-known news anchor and a political correspondent reacted to reports about the capture of Saddam Hussein.
"Peter Jennings was wondering if we were going to give Saddam Hussein a fair shake in a court of law," Bozell recalls. "[And] ABC chief White House correspondent Terry Moran wondered whether we were going to -- quote, unquote -- 'railroad' Saddam Hussein the way at Nuremberg we 'railroaded' the Nazis."
The media critic appears to have little stomach for such biased news comments. "Nothing good comes out of ABC," he says.
Bozell recently published a book entitled Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media.
