Posted on 03/07/2014 12:36:36 PM PST by Kaslin
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell appeared on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” last night and chastised the networks for skipping the substance of the latest congressional hearing on the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. Bozell’s comments came after Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the scandal, once again refused to answer questions during a congressional hearing, instead choosing to use her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Rather than discussing the merits of the latest hearing, all three networks chose instead to play up the verbal confrontation between Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), making it 99 days since ABC, CBS and NBC have even mentioned the actual IRS scandal. “I do believe that this IRS scandal is bigger than Watergate. And I think if you look at it objectively I think you conclude that” proclaimed Bozell.
Bozell on IRS Scandal: ‘Bigger Than Watergate’
Bozell began his analysis by pointing out that “I knew instinctively that if there was going to be any coverage, it was not going to be the bombshell of Lois Lerner taking the fifth again. It was going to be that little stunt that the Democrats pulled. This was designed solely for media attention. This was grandstanding. This was just an old game in Washington, but they knew that they can get headlines from it.”
The MRC president continued his dissection of the media’s coverage by pointing out that “we knew what they would do, which is not cover Lois Lerner, because they haven't covered her and they have ignored this scandal almost from day one… And by God, they succeeded. CBS did a story this morning, no mention, no discussion -- no serious discussion about her but they talked about Elijah Cummings. ABC did nothing at all.”
Bozell noted how “Remember I told you last week that they had done 22 seconds since June of 2013. Well, that 22 second record continues.” MRC documented how the day after the latest IRS hearing, NBC News framed the story by observing that “In Washington today, a public and startling example of the kind of behavior Congress has become known for and Congress has become gridlocked over.”
Bozell went on to argue that “In other words, Megyn, the story last night was not Lois Lerner. It was Congress.” The MRC president pointed out how with the IRS scandal it’s “becoming more and more apparent that there were serious crimes committed. The only question is how far up the ladder does this reach?”
The MRC president concluded the segment by bringing in some much needed historical context: I thought back in 1987, 1988 with Iran Contra. If you recall that, which is piddly stuff compared to this. But day in and day out, live coverage from the networks. Not a news story at night, all-day coverage to find out what Iran Contra was all about, what Ollie North had done. So, now, you have this woman who comes in to testify. She doesn't even make the news.”
“What if they gave a scandal and nobody came?”
Exactly. If no one cares, it’s not a scandal. And if you have idiots like Issa allowing the proceedings to be an indictment of his own “racism”, versus a full on breach of the constitution, well, the country is screwed.
Mmmm—that and a quarter won’t even buy a cup of coffee.
Watergate was a teenage prank compared to what is happening in Washington today.
Except the public doesn’t care. Why wouldn’t this just embolden them to take this further?
If the current administration was Repub, the media would be screaming “Bigger than Watergate” and we would have live gavel-to-gavel coverage on the alphabet networks and no one would be talking about how much the investigation is “costing the taxpayers”.
Fox News covered it, and just because the 0bama media ignored it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen
> Watergate was a teenage prank compared to what is happening
> in Washington today.
What’s going on in Washington today is a full blown bolshevik revolution.
Exactly
Are you saying that you don’t care? If so, than shame on you
You said it
Not quite.
More relevant would be
"If a scandal points to a Democrat, it is not a scandal."
Read what I said. Just because I care about something, doesn’t mean other people do.
Let's not forget, the IRS being used as a tool to alter an American election.
This is Huge-r than most believe. May take time, but the truth will emerge.
The public doesn’t care because the media doesn’t care. If there were a constant drumbeat of objective reporting, the public would demand removal from office.
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