Armed with evidence compiled by NewsBusters senior editor and Media Research Center director of research Rich Noyes, MRC president Brent Bozell sent letters to members of the boards of directors of two prominent newspapers in Utah, demanding that they offer their readers fair and balanced coverage of U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R). You may recall that both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News savaged the Tea Party conservative senator for his attempt to defund ObamaCare.
"Your paper can no longer claim that Sen. Lee’s strategy was out of proportion or radical," Bozell wrote Ellis Ivory, chairman of the board of directors for the Deseret News Publishing Company. "Already the nation is seeing ObamaCare for the disaster that it is" with "more than 3.5 million... losing existing health insurance plans as a result of ObamaCare," the MRC founder noted, adding:
Attempts to paint principled opponents of this terrible, destructive legislation as radical zealots are simply untenable. Sen. Lee tried to spare Americans from the pain inflicted by ObamaCare, and was relentlessly attacked for it in the pages of your paper.
There are two sides to this story and they deserve equal footing. The participants in this debate can demand no more, but expect
no less from an objective news media.
lt is our plea that you, as a member of the board of directors of the Deseret News, study this report and take the necessary step ensure that the coverage of Sen. Lee is fair and balanced.
To read Noyes' study, click here.
To read the letters sent to Mr. Ivory and other newspaper executives, click here for the PDF file.
