On Media Mash, Brent Bozell Slams Media's Effusive Coverage of Obama's 'Dishonest' Trayvon Remarks

July 26th, 2013 10:53 AM

On FNC's Hannity last night, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell teed off on the media's effusive reaction to President Obama's remarks last Friday about race and the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case.

Various journalists had described the President's speech as "extraordinary," "beautiful," and "a symphony." Bozell had a different word: "dishonest." (Video and partial transcript below the jump.)

SEAN HANNITY: All right, the President gives us a Trayvon Martin speech, and of course, the media loved it, didn't see it like I did, divisive, should have told everybody calm the waters a little bit, say put faith in the jury system, respect the verdict, no. But the media said it was "extraordinary," "beautiful," "a symphony." Watch:

Clip of CBS host MAURICE DuBOIS (CBS This Morning, July 20: This was certainly extraordinary for a sitting president to make remarks like these. Could we call it historic?
Historian DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: It certainly was historic. I mean, you have the first African-American president weighing in on a case that took part in Florida. I think it elevated the Trayvon Martin story really to the top tier history.

Clip of Newsweek/The Daily Beast's ELEANOR CLIFT (The McLaughlin Group, July 20): I want to say that the president's remarks on Friday are going to be read by future generations. They are beautiful. They are eloquent. They speak to the pain of a lot of the people in the country.

Clip of New York Times columnist DAVID BROOKS (NBC's Meet the Press, July 21): I thought this speech was one of the highlights of the presidency. I thought it was a symphony of indignation, professionalism, executive responsibility, personal feeling, it that all these different things woven together I thought beautifully. But it's important to remember, race is how he --

HANNITY: "A symphony." Your reaction?

BRENT BOZELL: You know, they have it right, it had all these things. It had one more thing too. It had rank dishonesty in it. None of them brought it up. None of them brought it up that this trial had nothing to do with race. He talked about the stand your ground laws. It had nothing to do with this stand your ground law. If you are going to be an honest journalist, you would have pointed it out.

Now this is not the first time it happened. Go back to March 2008. Remember when folks like you were going after him on the Jeremiah Wright situation? He gave that speech on race relations. He did the exact same thing, aiming right at the heart of white liberal guilt and he pulled it off. He is doing it again.