MRC’s Brent Bozell: ‘MSNBC’s Selectively Edited Romney Video, Andrea Mitchell’s Non-Apology Illustrate Network’s Dishonesty’ (Also: Rush’s Comments and Historical Perspective)
And to be very clear, the “network” with the problem is NBC and all affiliates, not merely the its fever-swamp headquarters known as MSNBC.
Here’s the full text of Media Research Center President Brent Bozell’s post today at NewsBusters (related videos are at the link):
Barack Obama’s adoring cheerleaders at NBC are back in the editing room distorting the truth, and, not surprisingly, Andrea Mitchell has the gall to make no apologies for it.
First it was their vile attempt to make George Zimmerman sound like a racist to gin up racial conflict, and now they’ve set their sights on Mitt Romney who they’re desperately trying to paint as an out-of-touch, silver spoon Republican wowed by Wawa sandwiches.
This is a brazen attempt by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell to create a modern “supermarket scanner” moment for Mitt Romney where one clearly does not exist. This “gaffe” is a complete fabrication deliberately perpetrated by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. Her attempt to right this wrong by playing a few more seconds of video today is a slap in the face. Romney was making a valid point about the efficiency of private sector innovation. He was not amazed that he could order a sandwich with a touchscreen. His message is clear as day to anyone who watches the full video of his stump speech, and should sicken anyone who compares it to Mitchell’s sensational hatchet job.
Rush Limbaugh had plenty of choice words for NBC today on his show (with side by side videos of all of what Romney said vs. NBC’s selectively edited version at the link), and made clear that Bush 41′s alleged “supermarket scanner” moment two decades ago was also a media concoction:
It was blatant, and they got caught. The worst thing that can happen to you, folks, is ridicule. And everybody is now ridiculing MSNBC. I mean, Politico tried at first to go along with the MSNBC version and then they quickly sized up what had happened and wanted no part of it. The Atlantic, Politico, everybody else in the Drive-By Media just distanced themselves from MSNBC. We have the tape coming up to show you what happened.
… They got caught. And in the process, by the way, everybody’s repeating the lie about George H. W. Bush’s scanner incident. In reality, Bush was at grocers convention. He was being shown a new type of scanner that could weigh groceries and read mangled and torn bar codes. It was new and amazing for the times, and it was not yet widespread commercially. But in this case, while they continue to spread the lie about George H. W. Bush, this is exactly what NBC fired three people for doing in the Trayvon Martin case.
Now, somebody needs to ask some serious questions.
You at NBC are becoming a laughingstock, and don’t think this is just confined to MSNBC. This is NBC corporate. It was NBC corporate and local in Miami that monkeyed around with the Zimmerman 911 tape, and now this. And what people are learning is that it really isn’t new. It’s standard operating procedure when you attempt, in the mainstream media, to criticize and impugn Republicans. This is blatant. And because somebody was there and able to record the whole thing with their cell phone, MSNBC and NBC are totally exposed.
And yet the jerks in the establishment press have the nerve to criticize James O’Keefe’s editing choices. Bleep them.
