"Now you have to go crying to Maddow and Shuster. How pathetic."

By GottaLaff

Dan Gainor has 817 followers on Twitter as of this writing. My pal Shoq has 5,304.

For the fourth time this week, according to Shoq, a different Media Research Center employee has come after him on Twitter. Last night it was Dan Gainor himself. Why? Because Shoq calls MRC out publicly.

As a result, MRC feels they have to control the message on Twitter, read by thousands, because they rarely if ever get attacked directly, let alone by name. Most people may not realize what these people do, and how much money they spend doing it. Per Shoq, they "own us".

Who is Dan Gainor? I'm glad you asked. He's a big gun at the Media Research Center under Brent Bozell. They are the right wing attack machine in the media:

The Media Research Center (MRC) is a conservative^[1][2] content analysis organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III. Its stated mission, according to its website, is "to bring balance and responsibility to the news media",^[1]and the MRC catalogs and reports on what it asserts to be widespread liberal media bias in the United States press.

The MRC has received financial support from several foundations, including the Bradley, Scaife, Olin, Castle Rock, Carthage and JM foundations.^[3]
[...]

In 1989, the MRC began monitoring the entertainment industry through its Entertainment Division and newsletter TV, etc.^[11] MRC president L. Brent Bozell III branched out the Parents Television Council from the Center in 1995 after he felt that decency on prime-time television was decreasing. The PTC monitors prime-time television for what it believes to be indecent content and publishes content-based reviews of television shows and oversees campaigns to make advertisers withdraw from programs that they believe to be morally offensive.^[12] Extra!, the magazine published by left-wing group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, asserted that the MRC's former newsletter TV, etc. inspired the group and "tracked the allegedly leftist politics of entertainment industry figures".^[13]

^[...]

In the summer of 2005, Media Research Center launched the NewsBusters web site in cooperation with Matthew Sheffield, a conservative blogger involved in the CBS Killian documents story. NewsBusters is styled as a rapid-response blog site that contains posts by MRC editors to selected stories in mass media.^[19] Although the site is advertised chiefly as a conservative site, it frequently defends Neoconservatives as well.^[20]. Not only does the site highlight journalists it deems to be liberally biased, but also non-journalists (writers, musicians, producers, scientists, etc.) who have a perceived liberal viewpoint ^{[21] [22] [23] [24]}. The site is also highly critical of bipartisan Republicans. ^{[25] [26] [27]}

^[...]

MRC released a report in 2007 claiming that the network morning shows devoted more airtime to covering Democratic presidential candidates than Republican ones for next year's election. Producers for such shows criticized the MRC's methodology as flawed,^[39] as did media critic Terry Krepel of the site ConWebWatch and organization Media Matters for America.^[36] During the 2008 US presidential election, MRC released a report claiming that the vast majority of news stories about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had a positive slant.^[40] 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.^[41]

^[...]

Progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America^[42] has also repeatedly criticized the MRC, charging they view the media "through a funhouse mirror that renders everything--even the facts themselves--as manifestations of insidious bias". ^[33]

To see what kind of "conversations" Shoq and Gainor have had, click on images to enlarge (or go to Shoq's page here and Gainor's here and find last night's tweets), and read from the bottom up, chronologically. The top image is Gainor's stream, so you only see his side of the exchange. The other image is Shoq's stream which only shows his side.

It's not easy to post Twitter streams, so do the best you can to read these as they're meant to be read. You'll get the gist without too much difficulty. If the images are still too hard to see, go to their respective pages, or zoom in on your actual screen view:

This is only part of the exchange.

While this back and forth can seem silly, it represents more than just squabbling. Think about who Gainor is, and why he feels it so necessary to carry on continually with someone most people have never heard of.

Conservative Catholics Want an Obama Faith Council Member Fired

Jeebus wept. I guess it's to be expected from a group that touts Bill Donahue and the freaks behind FRC and MRC as members. Poor defenseless Catholics...

Conservative Roman Catholic activists have launched a campaign to remove a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, alleging that he's a "virulent anti-Catholic bigot."

The groups say that Harry Knox, director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign—the nation's largest gay rights group—has a paper trail of anti-Catholic statements.

The activists, including the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, the Family Research Council's Chuck Donovan, and the Media Research Center's Brent Bozell, hosted a conference call this morning and released a letter to President Obama demanding that Knox be booted. (House Minority Leader John Boehner was among the signers.)

Gilgoff has the particulars on what this group considers anti-Catholic as opposed to legitimate criticism, but here's a typical example-

Knox told CNSNews.com that he "absolutely" stands by his criticism of the pope. "The Pope needs to start telling the truth about condom use," Knox said on Monday, Apr. 6. "We are eager to help him do that. Until he [Pope Benedict] is willing to do that and able, he's doing a great deal more harm than good - not just in Africa but around the world. It is endangering people's lives."

Hmmm, truth vs fairy tale. Hard to pick.