On Thursday’s episode of the LARRY podcast, host Larry O’Connor welcomed MRC President David Bozell for an in-depth discussion titled “Inside The Media Cartel: Bias, Money & Blacklisting.” O’Connor began with glowing praise for MRC’s foundational role in media accountability: “I learned from two of the best, Andrew Breitbart and Brent Bozell, the founder of Media Research Center over 30 years ago … we expose their bias, we expose their tricks and their tactics.”
He emphasized how MRC’s NewsBusters supplies crucial clips daily, adding, “We interact with video clips on this show every single day... and so many of the clips, I often have to say thank you, NewsBusters, for that clip.”
Diving into MRC’s history, O’Connor asked, “When was Media Research Center founded, and what was the idea of Brent Bozell when he founded it?”
Bozell shared the origin story from 1987 in a bar in Old Town Alexandria, chuckling: “Alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” He explained how his father and conservative allies recognized media distortion during Reagan’s era: “The message may be filet mignon, but by the time it got to the networks and the media, it ended up being chop suey.”
MRC began with a bi-monthly newsletter featuring biased quotes, evolving to more bold tactics, such as slipping critiques under reporters’ doors at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. This created demand for alternatives, boosting figures like Rush Limbaugh, whom MRC fed clips via rudimentary tech — “holding rotary phones to VHS players.”
Bozell highlighted MRC’s expansive work, from archiving 1 million hours of TV news to combating tech censorship with CensorTrack’s 8,400 documented cases. He stressed emerging threats: “We’ve got to do to the Googles and the Apples and the Yahoos and the Microsofts what we’ve done to ABC and CBS and NBC. Essentially, we have to get into the reputational destruction business with these guys.” Google News, he said, favors liberal sources nine out of ten times.
O’Connor encouraged a victory lap for MRC’s influence on Trump’s elections, crediting their decades-long fight. He wrapped with appreciation: “Thank you, NewsBusters and David Bozell, and Media Research Center for the great work you continue to do... we’re glad to be partners in that effort to draw attention to what the media continues to do because we the people deserve a free press in this country.”
For more details, visit MRC's NewsBusters.