The Media Research Center (MRC) is an American conservative content analysis and media watchdog group based in Herndon, Virginia, and founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III.

The nonprofit MRC has received financial support primarily from Robert Mercer, but with several other conservative-leaning sources, including the Bradley, Scaife, Olin, Castle Rock, Carthage and JM foundations. It also receives funding from ExxonMobil. The organization rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and criticizes media coverage that reflects the scientific consensus. The MRC received over $10 million from Robert Mercer, its largest single donor. It has been described as "one of the most active and best-funded, and yet least known" arms of the modern conservative movement in the United States. The organization rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and criticizes media coverage that reflects the scientific consensus.

As of its 2015 reporting to the IRS, the organization had revenue approaching $15 million and expenses in excess of $15 million. Bozell's salary during this year was reported as close to $345,000, with nearly $122,000 in additional compensation from the organization and related organizations.

In 1998, Bozell founded an organization called the Conservative Communications Center. The MRC also established CNSNews, the site of the Conservative News Service, which was later known as Cybercast News Service, several additional Media Research Center-affiliated websites. On its website, MRC publishes Bozell's syndicated columns, the CyberAlert daily newsletter documenting perceived media bias, and research reports on the news media

In October 2006, Bozell founded the Culture and Media Institute, an MRC branch whose mission is to reduce what he claims to be a negative liberal influence on American morality, culture, and religious liberty.

In 1992, the MRC created the Free Market Project to promote the culture of free enterprise and combat what it believes is media spin on business and economic news. That division changed its name to the Business & Media Institute (www.businessandmedia.org) and later to MRC Business and is now focused on "Advancing the culture of free enterprise in America." BMI's advisory board included such well-known individuals as economists Walter Williams and Bruce Bartlett, as well as former CNN anchor David Goodnow. BMI is led by career journalist Dan Gainor, a former managing editor at CQ.com, the website for Congressional Quarterly. It released a research report in June 2006 covering the portrayal of business on prime-time entertainment television during the May and November "sweeps" periods from 2005. The report concluded that the programs, among them the long running NBC legal drama Law & Order, were biased against business. Another report of the BMI accused the networks of bias in favor of the Gardasil vaccine, a vaccine intended to prevent cervical cancer.

CNSNews

Bozell founded CNSNews (formerly Cybercast News Service) in 1998 to cover stories he believes are ignored by mainstream news organizations. CNSNews.com provides news articles for Townhall.com and other websites for a subscription fee. Its leadership consists of president Brent Bozell and editor Terry Jeffrey. Under editor David Thibault, CNSNews.com questioned the validity of the circumstances in which Democratic Rep. John Murtha received his Purple Hearts as a response to Murtha's criticisms of the U.S. War in Iraq. 

During the Israeli's genocidal campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian population CNSNews.com added a banner displaying their support for Israel.

Parents Television Council

Further information: Parents Television and Media Council

Bozell founded the Parents Television and Media Council in 1995, initially as a branch of the Media Research Center focusing on entertainment television, after saying that he felt that decency was declining on prime-time television programming. The PTC's stated mission was "to promote and restore responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry."

During his tenure as PTC president, Bozell filed complaints with the FCC over what he alleged were indecent programs and attempted boycotts against advertisers on television programs the organization alleged were offensive. PTC was one of many organizations that filed complaints over the 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in which co-performer Justin Timberlake caused a brief exposure of Janet Jackson's right breast for which the FCC ultimately fined CBS. Excluding Super Bowl-related complaints, the vast majority of FCC complaints from 2003 to 2006 were found to have come from PTC.

In 2001, the PTC organized a mass advertiser boycott of the professional wrestling television program WWE SmackDown on UPN over claims that the program caused the deaths of young children whom the PTC felt were influenced by watching the program; in particular, the PTC cited the case of Lionel Tate, a 12-year-old Ft. Lauderdale boy who was arrested after murdering a 6-year-old girl. Tate's attorney claimed that he had accidentally killed her when he botched a professional wrestling move. It was ultimately determined that the girl had been stomped to death and had not been the victim of any professional wrestling move and was actually watching cartoons at the time the murder occurred. World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE) sued Bozell and his organization for libel. PTC's insurance carrier eventually chose to settle the case, paying $3.5 million to the WWE, and issuing a public apology.

In Bozell's mandated apology as part of settling the libel charges, Bozell said: "It was premature to reach that conclusion when we did, and there is now ample evidence to show that conclusion was incorrect. It was wrong to have stated or implied that WWE or any of its programs caused these tragic deaths."

Bozell and the PTC were criticized in a book entitled Foley is Good: And the Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling (2001), a memoir published by former WWE wrestler Mick Foley who questioned the reasoning and research PTC used to associate SmackDown with violent acts performed by children watching the program.

In 2018, the Media Research Center criticized journalist Katy Tur for introducing the issue of climate change into reporting on Hurricane Florence, while its director of media analysis bemoaned what he described as the use of "spin" to politicize media coverage of natural disasters. In 2017, MRC sponsored a conference by the Heartland Institute, an organization known for its effort to cast doubt about the scientific consensus on climate change. In November 2021, a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate described Media Research Center as being among "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content that denied climate change.

In 2002, MRC said CNN was "[Fidel] Castro's megaphone". In 1999, the MRC said that network news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC largely ignored Chinese espionage in the United States during the Clinton administration.

In MRC reports released from 1993 to 1995, it was claimed that such programs made more references to religion each later year, most of which became more favorable. In 2003, the MRC urged advertisers to pull sponsorship from The Reagans, a miniseries about President Ronald Reagan to be shown on CBS. The network later moved the program to its co-owned premium cable network Showtime.

The MRC has been a critic of the video game industry, arguing that there is a link between violent videogames and real-world violence; in this capacity, they (along with the Parents Television Council, a subsidiary) were invited to President Donald Trump's 2018 summit on video games and gun violence.

MRC released a report in 2007 claiming that the network morning shows devoted more airtime to covering Democratic presidential candidates than Republican ones for the 2008 election. Producers for such shows criticized the MRC's methodology as flawed. During the 2008 US presidential election, MRC claimed that the vast majority of news stories about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had a positive slant. MRC president Bozell praised MSNBC for having David Gregory replace Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as political coverage anchor beginning September 8, 2008, but MSNBC president Phil Griffin disputed the statements by Bozell and others who have accused the network of liberal bias.

Bozell was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries, describing him as "the greatest charlatan of them all", "a "huckster" and "shameless self-promoter". He said, "God help this country if this man were president." After Trump clinched the Republican nomination, Bozell attacked the media for their "hatred" of Trump. Politico noted, "The paradox here is that Bozell was once more antagonistic toward the president than any journalist." Bozell singled out Jake Tapper for being "one of the worst offenders" in coverage of Trump. However, several senior MRC staff told Politico that they considered Tapper a model of fairness, although that viewpoint has since changed.

Criticism

Extra!, the magazine of the progressive media watch group FAIR, criticized the MRC in 1998 for selective use of evidence. MRC had said that there was more coverage of government death squads in right-wing El Salvador than in left-wing Nicaragua in the 1980s, when Amnesty International stated El Salvador was worse than Nicaragua when it came to extrajudicial killings. Extra! also likened a defunct MRC newsletter, TV etc., which tracked the off-screen political comments of actors, to "Red Channels, the McCarthy Era blacklisting journal."

Journalist Brian Montopoli of Columbia Journalism Review in 2005 labeled MRC "just one part of a wider movement by the far right to demonize corporate media", rather than "make the media better."

On December 22, 2011, Media Research Center president Bozell appeared on Fox News and suggested U.S. president Barack Obama looks like a "skinny ghetto crackhead".

The Media Research Center has also faced scrutiny over the group's $350,000 purchase in 2012 of a Pennsylvania house that a top executive had been trying to sell for several years.

In 2013, Media Research Center president Bozell appeared on Fox News to defend a Fox interview in which Fox journalists conducted almost no research into the background of Reza Aslan to prepare for its interview with him, and its putative biases.

When the Media Research Center bestowed an award named for William F. Buckley to Sean Hannity, Bret Stephens, a neoconservative columnist for The New York Times, wrote an editorial in which he lamented, "And so we reach the Idiot stage of the conservative cycle, in which a Buckley Award for Sean Hannity suggests nothing ironic, much less Orwellian, to those bestowing it, applauding it, or even shrugging it off. The award itself is trivial, but it's a fresh reminder of who now holds the commanding heights of conservative life, and what it is that they think."

L. Brent Bozell III is the founder and President of the Media Research Center, which calls itself a conservative media watchdog organization; and founder and former President of the Parents Television Council, which his Townhall.com biographical note describes as "the only Hollywood-based organization dedicated to restoring responsibility to the entertainment industry."

"In June 1998, Mr. Bozell launched the Conservative Communications Center (C3) to provide the conservative movement with the marketing and public relations tools necessary to deliver its message into the 21st century. C3's online news division, the Cybercast News Service at www.CNSNews.com, has become a major internet news source with a full staff of journalists in its Washington, DC metro bureau, and operates bureaus in London and Jerusalem, with other correspondents around the world," his biographical note states.

"Bozell is a nationally syndicated writer whose work has appeared in a wide range of publications.

Bozell is Executive Director of the Conservative Victory Committee (CVC), "an independent multi-candidate political action committee that has helped elect dozens of conservative candidates over the past ten years. He was National Finance Chairman for the 1992 Buchanan for President campaign, and Finance Director and later President of the former National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). He currently belongs to the Council for National Policy (CNP) and sits on the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union (ACU).

Bozell served as president of the Parents Television Council from its creation in 1995 until stepping down at the end of 2006.

Media Transparency describes L. Brent Bozell III as "a zealot of impeccable right-wing pedigree." Bozell is one of ten children of L. Brent Bozell Jr. and Patricia Buckley Bozell. He is a nephew of the late conservative writer and National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. and the late United States Senator James L. Buckley through Buckley's sister, Patricia, and is a grandson of William Frank Buckley Sr.

His father L. Brent Bozell, Jr., assisted Barry Goldwater with the writing of Conscience of a Conservative. He was the chief fund-raiser behind Pat Buchanan's unsuccessful bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1992.

According to Media Transparency, Bozell helped orchestrate the smear campaign directed at the opposition to Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court in 1991. 

During the 2004 elections Bozell launched a 2.8 million dollar campaign to discredit the "liberal media". Bozell's August 29, 2004, column, on the eve of the Republican National Convention attempted to smear John Kerry by accusing him of "soldier-smearing", for having reported, during his 1971 Congressional testimony, on atrocities being committed in Vietnam.

Ghostwriting scandal

In February 2014, former employees of the Media Research Center confirmed media reports that Bozell does not write his own columns or books and has relied on a Media Research Center colleague, Tim Graham, to write them "for years". Following revelation that Bozell does not write his own material, the Quad-City Times, a daily newspaper, announced that it was dropping Bozell's column, reporting that, "Bozell may have been comfortable representing others' work as his own. We're not. The latest disclosure convinces us Bozell has no place on our print or web pages." The Quad-City Times article appeared under the headline, "WANTED: A replacement for Brent Bozell".

Reports that Bozell did not write his own material were confirmed by his Media Research Center colleagues. On February 13, 2014, The Daily Beast reported, "Employees at the MRC were never under any illusion that Bozell had been writing his own copy. 'It's an open secret at the office that Graham writes Bozell's columns, and has done so for years,' said one former employee. In fact, a former MRC employee went so far as to tell The Daily Beast: 'I know for a fact that Bozell didn't even read any of the drafts of his latest book until after it had been sent to the publishers'."

Talking Points Memo reported on February 14, 2014 that, "Brent Bozell has staked much of his career on challenging what he sees as a lazy media establishment, all while reportedly collecting the profits from books and columns he never actually wrote." According to the report, "despite not actually writing any of the content, Bozell still collects 80-90 percent of the profits."

 Terence P. Jeffrey started as editor in chief of CNSNews.com in September 2007. Prior to that, he served for more than a decade as editor of Human Events. He was born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area, the seventh of eleven children. Both his parents were doctors of medicine.

In 1992, Jeffrey served as issues and research director for Pat Buchanan's first Republican presidential campaign. In 1993-1994, he served as executive director of The American Cause, an educational foundation. In 1995-96, he was national campaign manager for Pat Buchanan's second Republican presidential campaign. Buchanan that year won the Alaska, Louisiana and Missouri caucuses, placed second in the Iowa caucuses, and won the New Hampshire primary. Terry writes a weekly column for the Creators Syndicate

Jeffrey is listed as Council for National Policy Board of Governors 1982, member 1984, 1988.

Jeffrey was an editorial writer for The Washington Times. As a columnist for publication he wrote about the US invasion of Iraq 'idealists may dream of a democratic, secular and pro-Western Iraq, but traditionalists would settle for an Iraq that has no weapons of mass destruction, does not invade its neighbors and does not collude with terrorists.' Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and did not collude with terrorists. He also hadn't invaded another country since the first Gulf War.

On April 25, 2009, Jeffrey published an article defending the use of torture by the CIA on detained Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah making the sensational claim that 'Waterboarding saved L.A.' This claim is strongly disputed by Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator who first interrogated Zubaydah following his capture, by traditional means. He said the most valuable information was gained before torture was used.

The CIA destroyed all the recordings of the waterboarding interrogations in 2005. No one has been held to account for their destruction.

Jeffrey's mention of Los Angeles refers to a claim made by then President George W. Bush. No information that came from any of the operatives mentioned in Jeffrey's article led to arrest of a terror cell, thwarting a terror plot .on Los Angeles.

Jeffrey pathetically justified the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who under torture admitted everything he was accused of; this included every terrorist attack and plot, and assassination attempt plot as well as admitting to personally beheading US journalist Daniel Pearl. That was conclusively found to be a fabrication.

A consistent theme of Jeffrey's writings involve whining about taxes and the deficit. I'm not sure exactly how Jeffrey wants the wars that he supports to be financed? Maybe someone could educate Mr. Jeffrey on those subjects to spare him from any further embarrassment in the future.