Media Research Center
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The Media Research Center (MRC) was founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III. According to its website, its mission is "to bring balance and responsibility to the news media". [1] MRC documents what it claims to be widespread liberal media bias in the American press.
The MRC has received financial support from several foundations including Bradley, Scaife, Olin, Castle Rock, Carthage and JM foundations.[2] Its headquarters is located in Alexandria, Virginia.
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[edit] Projects
In 1992, the MRC created the Free Market Project to promote the culture of free enterprise and combat media spin on business and economic news. That division recently changed its named to the Business & Media Institute (www.businessandmedia.org) and is now focused on "Advancing the culture of free enterprise in America." BMI's advisory board includes such well-known individuals as economists Walter Williams and Bruce Bartlett, as well as former CNN anchor David Goodnow. BMI is led by career journalist Dan Gainor, a former managing editor at CQ.com, the Web site for Congressional Quarterly.
On June 16, 1998, the MRC founded the Conservative News Service, since renamed Cybercast News Service (alternatively, CNSNews.com), whose stated role was to be a balanced source of news by covering stories that more mainstream news organizations ignored. CNSNews.com provides news articles for Townhall.com and other websites for a subscription fee. Its leadership consists of president Brent Bozell and editor David Thibault.
In the summer of 2005, Media Research Center launched NewsBusters, a blog site dedicated to "provide immediate exposure of liberal media bias, insightful analysis, constructive criticism and timely corrections to news media reporting." [3]
[edit] Controversies
In July 2002, MRC and affiliate Parents Television Council (PTC) paid an out-of-court settlement ending a lawsuit which had been launched by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in November 2000. WWE alleged 13 instances of defamation, copyright infringement and interference with prospective business relations after PTC produced a fundraising video using unauthorized WWE footage, falsely claimed WWE was responsible for the murders of four children, and falsely claimed advertisers had pulled their commercials from the show. MRC paid $3.5 million.[4]
MRC and PTC President Brent Bozell wrote in a lengthy public statement that "it was wrong to have stated or implied that the WWE or any of its programs caused these tragic deaths." [5]
Media Research Center and David Thibault have been involved in questioning the validity of the circumstances in which Democratic Rep. John Murtha received his purple hearts as a response to his criticisms of the U.S. War in Iraq.[6]
[edit] Criticisms
Extra!, the magazine of the liberal/progressive media watch group FAIR, criticized the MRC in 1998 for alleged selective use of evidence--the MRC had complained, for example, that there was more coverage of government death squads in right-wing El Salvador than in left-wing Nicaragua, without mentioning that there were roughly a thousand times more extra-judicial killings in El Salvador. Extra! also characterized the MRC as wanting to force out of the media any opinions that it disagreed with, even tracking the off-screen political comments of actors in a project that the magazine said "bore an uncomfortable resemblance to Red Channels, the McCarthy Era blacklisting journal." [7]
The liberal/progressive media watch group Media Matters has also repeatedly criticized the MRC, charging that they view the media "through a funhouse mirror that renders everything--even the facts themselves--as manifestations of insidious bias." [8]
However, groups such as Media Matters are themselves sometimes targets of the Media Research Center [9], and the two groups are generally seen as promoting two opposing viewpoints of the American Media.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website
- MRC's official blog, Newsbusters
- CNSNews.com, MRC's news service
- Business & Media Institute
- TimesWatch, an MRC project dedicated to "documenting and exposing the liberal political agenda of the New York Times"
- Source Watch's (formerly Disinfopedia) entry on Media Research Center
- "Meet the Myth-Makers: Right-Wing Media Groups Provide Ammo for 'Liberal Media' Claims", by Peter Hart and Steve Rendall, Extra!, July/August 1998. Progressive media criticism group offers criticism of MRC.
- Media Matters for America stories on the MRC
