Media Research Center
The Media Research Center (MRC), formerly known as Culture and Media Institute (CMI), is an American conservative content analysis and media watchdog group based in Herndon, Virginia, and founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III.[2]
Founded
October 1, 1987
501(c)(3) nonprofit[1]
Allegations of liberal media bias
Editorials, online newsletters, reports, conservative activism, right-wing activism
Tim Graham, Rich Noyes, Brent Baker, Dan Schneider
The CMI promoted its mission through editorials and research reports. In March 2007, the CMI published a "National Cultural Values Survey" and concluded from its results that most Americans perceived a decline in moral values.[3] One study released by the organization in June 2007 claimed that television viewing time correlated directly with one's liberal attitude, even possibly degrading to moral attitudes.[4] In 2008, it published a report detailing its opposition to reinstatement of the FCC fairness doctrine, a policy requiring broadcasters to present differing views on controversial issues of public import. The MRC claims the rule had been politically weaponized by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to suppress conservative radio, before being abolished by a bipartisan FCC in 1987.[5]
The nonprofit MRC has received financial support primarily from Robert Mercer,[6] but with several other conservative-leaning sources, including the Bradley, Scaife, Olin, Castle Rock, Carthage and JM foundations, as well as ExxonMobil.[7][8][9] It has been described as "one of the most active and best-funded, and yet least known" arms of the modern conservative movement in the United States.[10] The organization rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and criticizes media coverage that reflects the scientific consensus.[8][11]
Projects[edit]
Reports on the media[edit]
From 1996 to 2009, the MRC published a daily online newsletter called CyberAlert written by editor Brent Baker. Each issue profiles what he perceives as biased or inaccurate reports about politics in the American news media.[16] Prior to CyberAlert, MRC published such reports in a monthly newsletter titled MediaWatch,[17] from 1988 to 1999.[18] Media analysis articles are now under the banner BiasAlert.[19] Media analysis director Tim Graham and research director Rich Noyes regularly write Media Reality Check, another MRC publication documenting alleged liberal bias.[20] Notable Quotables is its "collection of the most biased quotes from journalists".[12] In Notable Quotables, editors give honors such as the "Linda Ellerbee Awards for Distinguished Reporting" based on the former CNN commentator, who Bozell considered "a liberal blowhard who has nothing to say".[21] Other features on its website include the weekly syndicated news and entertainment columns written by founder Bozell.
MRC staff members have also written editorials and books about their findings of the media. Bozell has written three books about the news media: And That's the Way it Isn't: A Reference Guide to Media Bias (1990, with Brent Baker); Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media (2004); and Whitewash: How The News Media Are Paving Hillary Clinton's Path to the Presidency (2007, with Tim Graham). Research director Rich Noyes has also co-authored several published books.[22]
MRC Business[edit]
In 1992, the MRC created the Free Market Project to promote the culture of free enterprise and combat what it believes is media spin on business and economic news. That division recently changed its name to the Business & Media Institute (www.businessandmedia.org) and later to MRC Business and is now focused on "Advancing the culture of free enterprise in America." BMI's advisory board included 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 website for Congressional Quarterly. It released a research report in June 2006 covering the portrayal of business on prime-time entertainment television during the May and November "sweeps" periods from 2005. The report concluded that the programs, among them the long running NBC legal drama Law & Order, were biased against business.[23] Another report of the BMI accused the networks of bias in favor of the Gardasil vaccine, a vaccine intended to prevent cervical cancer.
Brent Bozell ghostwriting[edit]
In February 2014, former employees of the Media Research Center alleged that the center's founder L. Brent Bozell III does not write his own columns or books and instead has used a ghostwriter, Tim Graham, for years.[41]
"Employees at the MRC were never under any illusion that Bozell had been writing his own copy. 'It's an open secret at the office that Graham writes Bozell's columns, and has done so for years,' said one former employee. In fact, a former MRC employee went so far as to tell The Daily Beast, 'I know for a fact that Bozell didn't even read any of the drafts of his latest book until after it had been sent to the publishers,' The Daily Beast reported."[42]
One newspaper, the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, dropped Bozell's column as a result, saying, "Bozell may have been comfortable representing others' work as his own. We're not. The latest disclosure convinces us Bozell has no place on our print or web pages."[43]
Viewpoints[edit]
In 2018, the Media Research Center criticized journalist Katy Tur for introducing the issue of climate change into reporting on Hurricane Florence, while its director of media analysis bemoaned what he described as the use of "spin" to politicize media coverage of natural disasters.[44] In 2017, MRC sponsored a conference by the Heartland Institute, an organization known for its effort to cast doubt about the scientific consensus on climate change.[45] In November 2021, a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate described Media Research Center as being among "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content that denied climate change. Facebook disputed the study's methodology.[46][47]
In 2002, MRC said CNN was "[Fidel] Castro's megaphone".[48] In 1999, the MRC said that network news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC largely ignored Chinese espionage in the United States during the Clinton administration.[49]
In MRC reports released from 1993 to 1995, it was claimed that such programs made more references to religion each later year, most of which became more favorable.[50] In 2003, the MRC urged advertisers to pull sponsorship from The Reagans, a miniseries about President Ronald Reagan to be shown on CBS. The network later moved the program to its co-owned premium cable network Showtime.[51]
The MRC has been a critic of the video game industry, arguing that there is a link between violent videogames and real-world violence; in this capacity, they (along with the Parents Television Council, a subsidiary) were invited to President Donald Trump's 2018 summit on video games and gun violence.[52][53]
MRC released a report in 2007 claiming that the network morning shows devoted more airtime to covering Democratic presidential candidates than Republican ones for the 2008 election. Producers for such shows criticized the MRC's methodology as flawed.[54] During the 2008 US presidential election, MRC claimed that the vast majority of news stories about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had a positive slant.[55] MRC president Bozell praised MSNBC for having David Gregory replace Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as political coverage anchor beginning September 8, 2008, but MSNBC president Phil Griffin disputed the statements by Bozell and others who have accused the network of liberal bias.[56]
ThoughtCo named MRC one of the top 15 conservatives to follow on Twitter.[57]
Bozell was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries, describing him as "the greatest charlatan of them all", "a "huckster" and "shameless self-promoter".[14] He said, "God help this country if this man were president."[14] After Trump clinched the Republican nomination, Bozell attacked the media for their "hatred" of Trump.[14] Politico noted, "The paradox here is that Bozell was once more antagonistic toward the president than any journalist."[14] Bozell singled out Jake Tapper for being "one of the worst offenders" in coverage of Trump. However, several senior MRC staff told Politico that they considered Tapper a model of fairness,[14] although that viewpoint has since changed.