Decrying Millers Ugly Raw Meat Speech

Decrying Millers Ugly
Raw Meat Speech

To document the heights (or depths) of liberal media bias during the week of the Republican convention in New York City, the Media Research Center staff is preparing twice-daily CyberAlerts. The following items are a sampling of the latest findings of notable convention media coverage, with full details available at www.mrc.org:

Another Houston? Network reporters went after Georgias Democratic Senator Zell Miller in a way they did not go after Al Sharpton after Sharptons inflammatory attack on President Bush at the Democratic convention. ABCs George Stephanopoulos cited anti-Miller e-mails: As he was talking, I was getting e-mails saying, you know, This reminds me of Houston, 1992, Pat Buchanan. Now, Zell Miller is no Pat Buchanan, but it was a very, very hot speech, not likely to convince, as I said before, many of the unconvinced.

Mad, Mad Zell. On CNNs NewsNight after the convention proceedings ended, Bill Schneider complained about Millers anger: This is a very angry convention, it's a very belligerent convention. I mean, I've covered 16 conventions. Now, Jeff said in the past you had speeches like this. I've never heard such an angry speech.

Nice Democrats, Mean Republicans. Also on CNNs NewsNight, Time magazine writer Joe Klein claimed that the Democratic convention speakers were benign and positive, but he railed that Republicans were being over the top angry. Klein called Millers speech the ugliest thing hes ever heard.

Segregation and Raw Meat. Over on MSNBC, Chris Matthews twice mentioned that Zell Miller had come up politically in the old segregationist South and he was loyal to many of those old issues in the past. After Miller spoke, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell opined that his speech was a red meat speech, in fact a raw meat speech, which in fact misstates a lot of Kerrys record. A few minutes later, Matthews got into a shouting match with Miller, who at one point wished he could duel the MSNBC anchor.

No Love for Cheney. Five weeks ago, CBSs reporters passed on glowing assessments of John Edwards speech. John Edwards has put the face on the Democratic Party, youthful and hopeful, CBSs Byron Pitts enthused. But after Dick Cheneys speech last night, the network only had time to point out how a protester had gotten into Madison Square Garden to charge, as anchor Dan Rather relayed, that Cheney and Halliburton made a killing in Iraq.

Still Bashing Reagan. After a GOP film about Ronald Reagan, PBSs Jim Lehrer trotted out the old liberal canard about how Reagans tax cuts resulted in a huge deficit. Of course, public TV took its share of tax dollars during the 1980s, and still does.

More Skewed News. For details on all these stories, plus more about how the networks are showing their bias as they cover the GOP convention, go to www.mrc.org.