On FNC, MRC’s Houck Brutally Mocks Liberal Media’s Childish Reactions to Trump Verdict

NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck made his latest Fox News appearance late Friday on Fox News @ Night and partnered with host Trace Gallagher and The Federalist’s Evita Duffy to ridicule the liberal media’s deranged and overly excited reactions to Thursday’s criminal conviction of former President Trump by a Manhattan jury. Gallagher first had correspondent Matt Finn set the table with a mash-up of clips, including ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar admitting she lost control of her bladder upon hearing the verdict, The View’s Sunny Hostin claiming she has sources inside the Manhattan D.A.’s office hoping for jail time, and Chris Matthews predicting “violence” by Trump supporters.     Houck reacted by saying it “remind[ed]” him “of the Judge Alito controversy” in that he came away with the same concern for all these hyper-partisan lefties, which is concern for whether they have anything else to occupy their minds besides melting down about Trump. “[D]o these people have hobbies? Like, do they do things for fun? Like, do they have kids or a spouse or a dog? Like do they like sports? I really wonder what do they do with their free time because it’s so apocalyptic and it’s so like faux doomsday nonsense,” Houck explained to a chuckling Gallagher.  Houck added the clips fall into two trains of thought: “Because you have that, and then, you also have the more ebullient kind of talk on The View where they are very excited about this. Too much information, Joy Behar. It’s — it’s bizarre. They don’t really know quite what they want to do in reacting to this verdict.” Later, Houck sounded off on the split decision by the liberal networks to carry vs. not carry Trump’s Friday morning remarks at Trump Tower. After noting “ABC and CBS...didn’t even carry network special reports on it” and instead aired regular episodes of The View and Price Is Right, respectively,  Houck worked in last week’s big study he co-wrote with Rich Noyes about the obsessive network coverage of the trial as a way of showing their disconnect with letting Trump speak: I mean, that’s interesting, because as I noted in a piece that ran at FoxNews.com and in NewsBusters, there were 640 minutes on this trial during the broadcast networks, and then, through this morning, it went up to 780 minutes. So, you spend all this time on the trial, but to let the man at the center of it being charged, speak? Ehh, no thanks. Reacting to The View ladies, Duffy noted “there is no diversity of opinions on The View” and are disconnected from younger voters and minorities with the former so focused on Gaza to focus elsewhere and the latter seeing “what’s happening to Trump, and they’re getting flashbacks of Venezuela, of Cuba, of the totalitarian regimes that they left.” Gallagher also had Duffy react to a viral piece from CNN legal analyst Elie Honig in New York Magazine admitting the charges brought by far-left Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg were “obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented” and “contorted...in an unprecedented manner in their quest to snare their prey.” Duffy said this wasn’t surprising given much of the general public knows “this is unprecedented” and Trump’s someone “who represents anti globalism and all of the things that the state, that — that the elites and media” hate. To see the relevant FNC transcript from May 31, click “expand.” FNC’s Fox News @ Night with Trace Gallagher May 31, 2024 11:14 p.m. Eastern [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Mainstream Media Celebrates Trump Conviction] TRACE GALLAGHER: Meantime, to the media’s mainstream — or mainstream media’s wall-to-wall coverage of the trial culminating in what became a celebration of sorts after the guilty verdicts were read. Matt Finn is live with that part of the story, Matt, good evening. MATT FINN: Trace, some members of the media have not been able to contain their excitement over former President Trump’s conviction, and here are some of the ladies of The View. JOY BEHAR [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I was at Costco buying, you know, 10 boxes of Keurig coffee and my watch started to buzz, and I got so excited, I started leaking a little bit. HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I felt like America won. BEHAR [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: Yep. HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I felt like New York won. I felt like the Manhattan D.A.’s Office won. I felt like I won. FINN: And here is Trump opponent, Adam Schiff, and host of Morning Joe on MSNBC. CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA) [on MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera Reports, 05/31/24]: Trump and his MAGA followers are, you know, digging in — [SCREEN WIPE] — trying to tear down the system. CHRIS MATTHEWS [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: There is going to be violence, there is going to be trouble. [SCREEN WIPE] This is wrong. There is going to be some problems here, maybe some violence. And this President — former President should not have done what he did. MIKA BRZEZINSKI [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: I don’t think he has a problem with the concept of violence. FINN: And The View and CNN discussing the prospect of former President Trump going to jail. WHOOPI GOLDBERG [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: If we are going to treat this man, who used to be president, like everybody else, you are convicted of felonies, you got to juice a little bit of time. HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I spent this morning speaking to someone from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He believes that they will recommend a one-year term in prison. When you spend a year in prison in New York or under, you serve in Rikers Island. Okay? NORM EISEN [on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, 05/30/24]: I think Alvin Bragg is going to ask for a sentence of incarceration, and I think Judge Merchan will very seriously weigh that. FINN: Former President Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11, Trace. GALLAGHER: We’ll be there, Matt. FINN: Yeah. GALLAGHER: Matt, good to see you. Let’s bring in NewsBusters’s managing editor, Curtis Houck, and the Federalist staff contributor, Evita Duffy. Thank you both for coming on. I have to play it one more time just because it’s worth watching. This is the ladies of The View with their embarrassing take on this. Watch. ANA NAVARRO [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I was schizophrenic because part of me was like, yay. And part of me was like, you know what? This is really serious. Yay. This is really serious. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: ‘The View’ Celebrates Donald Trump’s Conviction] HOSTIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: I didn’t feel somber. I felt like the Knicks won the tournament. BEHAR [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: My watch started to buzz and I got so excited, I started leaking a little bit. ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN [on ABC’s The View, 05/31/24]: He is going to do and say absolutely anything that he can to get elected. So, buckle up because that’s rage and retribution. GALLAGHER: I mean, the last woman, Alyssa, she used to work for him, Evita Duffy. That’s the whole thing. It’s amazing, they could not care less about the facts of this case. This was all about get Trump, I don’t care what the cost. EVITA DUFFY: Well, exact — that’s exactly right. And, of course, it’s The View, which is supposed to be a diversity of opinions. And there is no diversity of opinions on The View, there never is, but here’s the deal, Trace. You have young people and minorities turning away from Democrats in droves. And this, this rhetoric, from The View and from other Democrats in the corporate media is not helping. For his — for minorities, specifically, Hispanics, they are looking at what’s happening — what’s happening to Trump, and they’re getting flashbacks of Venezuela, of Cuba, of the totalitarian regimes that they left. Young people, on the other hand, they are really animated by Gaza. But they can’t even tell you where Gaza is on a map. They are really, I think, showing that they are disillusioned with the system, that the — that their futures are being destroyed by them — GALLAGHER: Yeah. DUFFY: — by — by this system that’s created by — by Biden and Democrats in general. And so, this rhetoric from the people on The View is not resonating with the people that Democrats need to win over —  GALLAGHER: Right. DUFFY: — if they have a chance at winning in November. GALLAGHER: I think it’s worth playing Morning Joe crew again. Because the only people who top The View are the people on Morning Joe. Watch, Curtis. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Scarborough: “It Hurts to See People Hate America”] JOE SCARBOROUGH [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: They degrade themselves. And they slander America. [SCREEN WIPE] It hurts to see people hate America. MIKE BARNICLE [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: This is a reason to stop and think and maybe even get depressed over the reaction on the other side. The anti-Americanism that filled the air last night. EUGENE ROBINSON,[on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 05/31/24]: Trashing this — this incredible institution is just appalling, and shame on them. GALLAGHER: I mean, Curtis, you got to love the drama coming out of there, right? Because now, dissent and disagreement in America is just — it’s anti American. It’s an assault on democracy. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Media Reaction to Donald Trump’s Guilty Verdict] CURTIS HOUCK,: Yes. I mean, Trace, this coverage kind of reminds me of the Judge Alito controversy, where I watch all these clips. And I’m like, do these people have hobbies? Like, do they do things for fun? [GALLAGHER LAUGHS] Like, do they have kids or a spouse or a dog? Like do they like sports? I really wonder what do they do with their free time — GALLAGHER: Yeah. HOUCK: — because it’s so apocalyptic and it’s so like faux doomsday nonsense. Because you have that, and then, you also have the more ebullient kind of talk on The View where they are very excited about this. Too much information, Joy Behar. GALLAGHER: Yeah. HOUCK: It’s — it’s bizarre. They don’t really know quite what they want to do in reacting to this verdict. GALLAGHER: Yeah, I want to read this and I need quick answers, because I’ve only got a couple of minutes left. But the this is from New York Magazine. This is the lead legal guy at CNN. He writes: “The charges against Trump are obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented. In fact, no state prosecutor in New York, Wyoming, anywhere has ever charged federal election laws as a director of predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None, ever. Prosecutors get their man, for now at least, but they also contorted the law in an unprecedented manner in their quest to snare their prey.” He might not be invited back on CNN, Evita. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: CNN Analyst: Prosecutors “Contorted the Law”] DUFFY: Yeah, I think that people know that this is unprecedented. I think that they are viewing this as a — as a political persecution against them, in the same way that it is against Trump. This is a man who represents anti globalism and all of the things that the state, that — that the elites and media and in our — in our other institutions believe in, and they are realizing that this is the same persecution against them, as [inaudible]. GALLAGHER: Meantime today, The New York Times writes, “Several major networks cut away from former President Donald J. Trump on Friday during an appearance that had been promoted as a news conference.” I mean, Biden told 15 lies in 18 minutes, Curtis, on CBS. Oh, yes, totally fine. Trump? Oh, cut away. Cut away, don’t let him talk. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Networks Cut Away From Donald Trump’s Speech] HOUCK: ABC and CBS, Trace, didn’t even carry network special reports on it. You know? GALLAGHER: Mmhmm. HOUCK: I mean, they carried The Price Is Right and they carried that nonsense we are playing on The View, instead. I mean, that’s interesting, because as I noted in a piece that ran at FoxNews.com and in NewsBusters, there were 640 minutes on this trial during the broadcast networks, and then, through this morning, it went up to 780 minutes. So, you spend all this time on the trial, but to let the man at the center of it being charged, speak? Ehh, no thanks. GALLAGHER: Again, assaulting democracy, Curtis Houck, Evita Duffy, thank you both. HOUCK: Thanks, Trace.

MRC’s Bozell Sounds Off to Mark Levin on ‘Frightening’ Media Coverage of Trump Trial

Hours after a jury in far-left Manhattan found former President Trump guilty Thursday on all 34 counts in Soros-backed D.A. Alvin Bragg’s sham trial, Media Research Center’s Founder and President Brent Bozell joined Mark Levin on his syndicated radio show to discuss the MRC’s bombshell study on network coverage of the trial and the “frightening” simpatico between the Biden regime and the liberal, “neo-Marxist” media.     Bozell first went into the numbers of the study from our Curtis Houck and Rich Noyes: If you look at the network newscast coverage since the beginning of trial of the jury selection, there have been a total of 640 minutes that have been devoted to this. Now, that’s a huge amount and you can say, well, look, it’s a trial where the former President is on trial. So — and I’ll agree with you that it’s an important issue, but I would also remind you that there have been other important trials such as the impeachment of Bill Clinton, such as Benghazi with Hillary, such as an alphabet soup having to do with — with Joe Biden. And there’s been no of that. But let’s put that aside. Look at the 640 minutes. 244 of those 644 minutes have been devoted to attacking Donald Trump. So one third of the coverage that was done on. This was not in any way pretending to be even handed. It was — it was an attack. Now, now let’s look deeper into the numbers and this is where it really is going to get very bothersome....[L]et’s look at how the networks are telling their viewers. Let’s start with the D.A. — Bragg — Alvin Bragg. Who is Alvin Bragg? Well, you know that he’s a Democrat...[H]ow much coverage did they give Bragg? How much coverage did they, did they talk about him?..[O]n NBC News, there were two references to Alvin Bragg. No stories done on ABC. The only time you heard about Alvin Bragg being a Democrat was one sound bite by Donald Trump. On CBS News, there wasn’t a single reference to the political agenda of Alvin Bragg[.] Bozell then argued the instances of burying and/or omitting key facts of the trial on ABC, CBS, and NBC weren’t “bias by ignorance” but rather “a deliberate attempt to go in for the kill for the Biden campaign” and do the bidding of the President. “I think it’s got to be the most dishonest media performance I’ve ever seen and by God, I’ve seen a lot,” he added. Levin agreed, noting the press has been “giddy” in “promoting” the trial. Bozell replied with an NBC poll showing that, among Americans whose primary source of news was ABC, CBS, or NBC, Biden leads Trump by 20 points, 55 to 35 percent. He then went into how only three minutes of network evening coverage (through Wednesday) brought up the fact that lead prosecution witness Michael Cohen had been convicted of perjury; as well as zero mentions of Judge Juan Merchan being a Biden donor. “Again...deliberate that they are not going to tell their viewers who Michael Cohen is...Now, you understand why Biden enjoys a 55 to 35 percent lead over Donald Trump with that demographic. It is feeding directly into them and this is a decision on a presidential campaign that could be decided by a couple of points,” Bozell exclaimed. The MRC Founder also reiterated something he told WMAL’s O’Connor & Company, which was these network “airwaves belong to the American people” and Congress should hold hearings to get into this. In a second segment, the two discussed whether the guilty verdict would help or hurt Trump on the campaign trail (click “expand”): LEVIN: So, going forward here, do you think this will have an impact on the election? I mean, we know the media will use this as an opportunity to constantly ding and bang and hammer Trump on behalf of Biden. Do you think that’ll have an impact? It can’t help, right? BOZELL: I — I think it will. I think it’s gonna help Trump and, and here’s why. The — if — if the mag — the MAGA nation will be more solid behind him than it’s ever been before. That’s point number one. You will have no defections. Number two, you’ve had some people who have defected from the Biden camp because of economic issues. That’s the one thing they care about, they care about inflation, they care about mortgage rates, they care about the price of gasoline. They don’t give a damn about this and they’re not going to change their votes back to Biden when their — when their — their issue is pocketbook issues. Not to mention the border, not to mention Israel and so many other things that the Biden administration is messed up. And then thirdly, I think there’s going to be a segment of the — the soft Biden vote that’s going to look at this and it’s going to believe that there’s something fundamentally unfair and fundamentally wrong and then they’re going to see Donald Trump on the campaign trail, Donald Trump in rallies where he’s going to have 100,000 people behind him, cheering him on and people are going to start second guessing this. It’s just my hunch. I don’t think this is gonna hurt him. I think this is going to help him. It was following this that Bozell dropped the hammer, declaring there’s zero “distinction between the news media and Joe Biden” and how it’s “frightening” to realize nothing would look different “[i]f Joe Biden were running NBC, CBS, and ABC, if he was in charge of the decision making.” “[W]e saw biased media against Ronald Reagan. We saw a biased media against media against both Bushes. You’ve seen the biased media against Republican presidential candidates and presidents for as long as we can remember. You’ve never seen a media like this — a media that not just are biased, but they’re lying through their teeth. And more importantly, they’re keeping information from the American people,” he added. The pair wrapped with a thorough dismantling of the “neo-Marxist worldview...of the far left” in the media and how disconnected they are from reality (click “expand”):  BOZELL: I do believe they share in the neo-Marxist worldview of — of the — of the far left. And the reason I say that is because they give aid and comfort and they advance it. Look at how — look at how they advanced the Black Lives Matter movement, which was a self-described Marxist movement. Look how they’ve advanced antifa. That’s a terrorist organization. Look how they’ve advanced the pro-Hamas movement which they love to call Palestinian. It’s pro-Hamas, the Hamas people could not be any happier with the networks than they are today. They’ve been — and by the way, they’ve been doing this for years with Israel. For years, they’ve been doing this. So, um, are they the tip of the spear too for neo-Marxism in America today? Absolutely. Do — do — would they make Walter Cronkite shudder in this belief? Absolutely. LEVIN: Mmhmm. Well, we can’t actually do anything about them other than compete against them, keep building platforms against them, exposing them and hoping the American people understand what’s taking place, but isn’t this also a problem? That is the indoctrination in our academic — in our schools and so forth and our academic teachings. And moreover, a wide open border, people coming in who have no idea whatsoever about American history and the constitution. And we get, we’re gonna get the opposite of it in our public school system. BOZELL: And — and — and — and what they’re being taught is that American exceptionalism is wrong. They’re being taught critical race theory, that America is fundamentally a racist country. They’re being taught that the alternative is the 1619 Project, which came out of The New York Times which suggests that you don’t need 1776. You don’t need the Constitution, you don’t need the Republic. You can come up with a new country. That’s what immigrants are being hit with. That’s what America’s children are being hit with. Again, this is a news media that could care less about the news. This is indoctrination at every single level. You know, think about a reporter and what real life experience a reporter has a reporter goes to Rutgers or goes to Yale or Princeton and then goes to the Columbia School of Journalism and then gets a job in The New York Times and works his way up. That reporter has never seen a piece of daylight of Americana. That person has never held a real job, that person’s never run a business, has no concept of the free market system. So many left wingers are that way today. I remember the — the story about George McGovern who, when he left office, started a bed and breakfast and because of regulations, it went out of business and he said, if only I had known the consequences of my actions. Well, they have no concept of consequences. You’ve got these punks — these are 20, 30 year old punks who don’t know a lick about the oil industry, passing judgment on the oil industry. They don’t have a lick of economic sense and they’re telling you that Joe Biden’s America is doing very well economically. They don’t have a problem with mortgage rates. They make very nice cha-ching in New York and Washington DC. They don’t have families, they don’t have children, they don’t have responsibilities out there in real America where you have families and you have children, like my children have their Children. They’re struggling when the price of gas has gone up under Joe Biden — has gone up 46 percent, when inflation has gone from 1.9 percent, which was the average under Donald Trump, he brought it down 1.4. Biden took it to 5.5, when you see mortgage rates go up 156 percent where people can’t buy homes. That’s real America. People in Washington D.C. don’t have that problem. They just rent apartments and live a good life and go out to restaurants and Starbucks every single day. That’s a false economy. In the real world, which these reporters have never visited, it’s quite different and it’s quite tragic.

MRC’s Bozell NUKES Networks on WMAL for Using Trump Trial to Interfere in 2024 Election

On the Thursday edition of WMAL’s O’Connor & Company, Media Research Center Founder and President Brent Bozell laid waste to ABC, CBS, and NBC for their “completely biased coverage of Donald Trump” as revealed by our latest study of the sham trial by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg interfering in the 2024 election. Speaking to co-hosts Larry O’Connor and Mercedes Sclapp, Bozell said “the networks have no right to steal elections this way” with a mammoth 640 minutes since jury selection began and rank bias by omission with only three minutes during their evening shows on Michael Cohen’s perjury conviction and zero seconds on Judge Juan Merchan’s liberal ties. Most significantly, Bozell implored listeners at the end of the interview to remember these “broadcast airwaves are owned by the American people” and with this “deliberate attempt to interfere with the election” by “deliberately” withholding key facts about the trial, “it’s high time for Congress to hold hearings” because they “have no right to steal elections”. Earlier in the interview, he conceded the trial’s significance is “so serious that you should expect the networks to treat it seriously” and while “I’ll agree with you completely” that the 640 minutes wasn’t surprising, but a “look inside that coverage” reveals a murderer’s row of bias.     After asking a rhetorical question of how the networks would react if Barack Obama were charged with the same crimes by a white prosecutor in Mississippi, he outlined the scant mentions of Cohen’s criminal record, which he argued is “[t]he whole key to the Trump defense”: With D.A. Alvin Bragg, who’s a Democrat who’s prosecuting Donald Trump, out of — get this number — out of 110 evening news stories, only three hinted that he was a Democrat. On NBC Nightly News, there were exactly two references. On ABC, they let it slip once — and that was Donald Trump quoting it. And CBS once never mentioned it once on the trial. It gets even better than that. What about Michael Cohen? The whole key to the Trump defense is that he is a serial liar and a convicted perjurer. Nearly one third of the coverage discussed Michael Cohen and yet, guess how many times they mentioned his conviction for perjury? Three minutes....The key to Donald Trump’s defense was given three minutes out of 640 minutes. Bozell also brought up the lack of mentions for Merchan’s conflicts of interest (including his donations to President Biden and an anti-Republican group) as well as how “[o]n average, more than one time every [evening] story, they’ve said that [Trump’s] a criminal.” Upon being told ABC was the worst, O’Connor proclaimed: “Yeah, the house that George Stephanopoulos built is the worst. Absolutely.” Before closing with a screed against the networks for poisoning the electorate, Bozell pointed out these coverage tallies have real-world impacts with an NBC poll giving Biden “a landslide of 55 percent to 35 percent” over Trump in November among “people who say they primarily get their information from national network news”.

MRC’s Houck Reacts on FNC to Biden/Trump Debate Plans; ‘Watch Out for Shenanigans’

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck returned to the Fox News Channel Wednesday on Fox News @ Night to react to the sudden agreement between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump campaigns to hold presidential debates on June 27 with CNN and September 10 with ABC. Speaking to host Trace Gallagher, Houck urged caution on the part of the Trump team and be prepared for the debates to be rigged. Asked by Gallagher to explain why he doesn’t “think that CNN moderators” Jake Tapper and Dana Bash “will give Trump a fair shake,” Houck explained “you got to watch out for shenanigans” and said it was reminiscent of what this site warned ahead of the “infamous CNBC debate back during the 2016 election cycle.”     “Jake Tapper, he received awards for pushing the fake Trump Russia collusion case. So, as you point out in your Common Sense [commentary], and Erin [Perrine] and Amber [Duke] pointed out as well [in the previous segment], you know, the demands that President Trump is willing to meet, yeah, you want to see these debates happen, but did you do that at the expense of a fair show for you,” he added. Gallagher then went to former local TV anchor Dee Sarton with similar warning from a piece by our friend Eddie Scarry at The Federalist: “Trump, along with every other Republican should at least have a guarantee that there won’t be any more Chris Wallace or Candy Crowley moments where the moderator takes liberty to run interference for the Democrats.” Sarton concurred with Houck and Scarry, saying her “stomached turned when I heard...who moderators were going to be” and Biden may “have turned the tables a little bit with” his goating video Wednesday morning. “You got to really think about the Americans...who would really love to see these two men side by side, who maybe are still a little bit undecided in this. What do they need to hear? And try to cut through that...[T]he guy is pretty smart..But it’s going to take a lot of work to be ready for that night,” she argued. Houck followed up with more concerns about this CNN debate, such as the possibility they’ll engage in “live fact-checking” with the sniveling Daniel Dale “and who knows about snarky chyrons.” To remove the possibility of any nonsense being fed to the moderators, Houck also suggested “Dana Bash and Jake Tapper and then, Lindsey Davis and David Muir and ABC shouldn’t be wearing earpieces” in order to keep the debate as organic and “free flowing” as possible. All they would need to keep things moving, Houck argued, would be clocks (which are standard below most camera rigs in TV studios). “There is just so many factors, especially with CNN that we really, really got to watch out for. And just real quickly, on substance, Peter Doocy is exactly right, that — it’s very clear this is to distract away from the issues, considering Biden has been dragged on issue after issue,” Houck concluded. Before the segment wrapped, Sarton spoke from experience of moderating debates about the dynamics between having an audience versus none at all: I’ve heard some people say today, oh, well, Trump, you know, he feeds off the audience. He needs that audience. I’m not sure I agree with that. I think he can bring it without an audience, even though obviously, it helps. I’ve done debates when the room is empty, and it really does suck all the light out of the room...I don’t think the lack of an audience is going to be nearly as damaging to President Trump. To see the relevant transcript from May 15, click “expand.” FNC’s Fox News @ Night with Trace Gallagher May 15, 2024 11:09 p.m. Eastern TRACE GALLAGHER: Let’s get media analysis from NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, and the host of A Home That Heals podcast, the queen of Idaho Television, former TV news anchor Dee Sarton. Thank you both for coming on. To you first, Curtis, because you don’t think that CNN moderators will give Trump a fair shake. Explain that for us. CURTIS HOUCK: Yeah, I think you got to watch out for shenanigans, Trace. We, at NewsBusters said this when there was that infamous CNBC debate back during the 2016 election cycle. Jake Tapper, he received awards — GALLAGHER: Mmhmm. HOUCK: — for pushing the fake Trump Russia collusion case. So, as you point out in your Common Sense, and Erin and Amber pointed out as well, you know, the demands that President Trump is willing to meet, yeah, you want to see these debates happen — GALLAGHER: Right. HOUCK: — but did you do that at the expense of a fair show for you? GALLAGHER: Yeah. And Dee, Eddie Scarry at The Federalists, wrote the following here, quoting, “Trump, along with every other Republican should at least have a guarantee that there won’t be any more Chris Wallace or Candy Crowley moments where the moderator takes liberty to run interference for the Democrats.” I mean, we have learned that moderates can — moderators, rather, Dee, can really sway the jury. I mean, you have worked the debates. So, you know, what’s going on here. If you were advising Trump, about these debates, is there anything you would advise or add? DEE SARTON: Oh, boy, I’ll tell you, my stomach turned when I heard, you know, who the moderators were going to be? And yeah, it’s a — it’s a tough situation. I feel like he came out so strong and said, any place any time. GALLAGHER: Yeah. SARTON: That was sort of his power play, and now they have turned the tables a little bit with this. And so, I am a little bit worried about that. And I guess my advice would be boy, you got to really think about the Americans — the Americans that — that I’m around all the time, who would really love to see these two men side by side, who maybe are still a little bit undecided in this. What do they need to hear? And try to cut through that. But that’s got to be tough, but I kind of can’t imagine when you’ve got the — all of that going against you, how that happens. GALLAGHER: Yeah. SARTON: But the guy is pretty smart, and I think he can figure it out. But it’s going to take a lot of work to be ready for that night and in a way that the underdecides will hear his message. GALLAGHER: Yeah. It seems, Curtis that the Biden team wants this debate to be as controlled as possible. You know, that’s why you control as much as you can. And hopefully, you can contain any errors or any you know, bad looks. HOUCK: Yeah, exactly. I mean, and then, there is the question, as you pointed out, as well about live fact-checking, is Daniel Dale going to be there? GALLAGHER: Yeah. HOUCK: I saw someone on X today argue that maybe, you know, the Dana Bash and Jake Tapper and then Lindsey Davis and David Muir and ABC shouldn’t be wearing earpieces, so they are not being fed things in their ear. You know, they can have clocks there like we do in our studios for keeping time. But other than that, I mean, it should just be free flowing. GALLAGHER: Yeah. HOUCK: And who knows about snarky chyrons? There is just so many factors, especially with CNN that we really, really got to watch out for. And just real quickly, on substance, Peter Doocy is exactly right, that — it’s very clear this is to distract away from the issues, considering Biden has been dragged on issue after issue. GALLAGHER: Yeah, and it really is a big gamble, Dee, because you look at this and you think, okay, they can control this, they can cut the microphone to Donald Trump, and cut Biden’s microphone and, maybe even kind of limited the moderators, but the bottom line is, is that there’s no teleprompter. And if you’re an 81-year-old president, who is known to kind of speak out of turn, this is something that they cannot control and it’s not the State of the Union speech. I mean, you can do whatever you want to but you have to speak off the cuff for a lot of this. SARTON: Right, you really do. And, you know, I was thinking about this earlier today. It’s a situation where people — I’ve heard some people say today, oh, well, Trump, you know, he feeds off the audience. He needs that audience. I’m not sure I agree with that. I think he can bring it without an audience, even though obviously, it helps. I’ve done debates when the room is empty, and it really does suck all the light out of the room. But I do you think it’s going to be tough. From what we have seen of President Biden, I just kind of can’t imagine what that’s going to be like. GALLAGHER: Yeah. SARTON: And not having those support systems in place for him, I think that’s going to be the Achilles heel for him. I don’t think the lack of an audience is going to be nearly as damaging to President Trump. GALLAGHER: Yep, it is. I mean, you’re the President. You are alone and you are flying blind for a short time there. Dee Sarton, Curtis Houck, thank you both. HOUCK: Thanks.

MRC's Tim Graham on Fox Biz: NPR's CEO Should Be Afraid of Us and Our Evidence

After his boat-rocking testimony before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on the leftist tilt of National Public Radio on Wednesday, NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham appeared on The Bottom Line with Dagen & Duffy on Fox Business. Host Sean Duffy said it was unfair to make taxpayers fund a "radical liberal machine.". NPR CEO Katharine Maher declined an invitation to the hearing, and Graham said "Maybe she didn't want to show up because we had all of the examples today.... NPR likes books like In Defense of Looting. NPR likes the movie How to Blow Up a Pipeline and then it's everything they have to say about the Republicans, being 'hard right' Republicans who want to drive the country off a cliff. I don't know how you can defend all that. We had Democrats today trying to claim what NPR does is objective, you just don't like objective reporting, which is comedy. You can't provide a laugh track when they say that, because it impolite. But you sure wanted to."   Co-host Dagen McDowell suggested the Democrats don't listen to NPR so they can be "blissfully ignorant" when they call it unbiased, so they "can stay that without laughing." She called NPR a "sewage lagoon." They discussed how NPR claims they only receive one percent of the budget from the federal government, but in reality, the government funds the local affiliates, who send money back to Washington in "programming fees." So a defunding would be dramatic for them.  Tim said "What they really need to do is just take that threat, and say we getter go back to what we are supposed to be doing, which is allowing both sides to speak, let both parties speak. That is not what they are doing, they have softballs for Democrats and hardball for Republicans -- when they get a chance [to be interviewed]." See highlights from Tim's hearing here.