Bozell: CNN, MSNBC Would ‘Rather Go Down in Flames’ Than Provide Balanced News Coverage

(CNSNews.com)- (CNSNews.com)- Speaking on C-SPAN’s “After Words” on Saturday, Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell said CNN and MSNBC would “rather go down in flames” than “balance out” their network coverage.

“[I]f you’re CNN and you want to regain your audience, well, within 15 seconds a market analysis will tell you the conservatives left. Bring back – don’t go with the conservative standpoint, just even out, balance out your network coverage. Go back to news and you’re going to bring conservatives back,” Bozell said. “They’d rather go down in flames than do that. MSNBC would rather go down in flames.”

Bozell was discussing his new book, “Unmasked: Big Media’s War Against Trump,” with Host Carrie Sheffield, national editor of Accuracy in Media.

Asked why media aren’t listening to their consumers, who are clearly telling them what they need to do to regain audience and credibility, Bozell said it’s because “politics trumps business”:

“There’s a fallacy that says that business trumps politics. No, it doesn’t – politics trumps business when it comes to the news media, for that reason.”

Bozell then recalled how he once gave two pieces of advice to a man he knew who became president at CNN:

“The first one is: get on CNN One, or whatever your aircraft is, go to Palm Beach, bring your checkbook, ask around, try to find directions to this guy Rush Limbaugh’s house.

“Go to his house, knock on the door, open up your checkbook, sign it – a blank check. Give it to him, tell him he can fill it in for whatever amount he wants and do whatever he wants and in one week you’ll have the number one network on television. That’s all you have to do.”

“He said ‘Well, what’s your second idea?’ And I said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t pick a fight with Roger Ailes. He chews roofing nails for breakfast.’ Well, this guy did and he lost his job as a result.”

The lesson of the story, Bozell said, is that liberal media don’t have to become conservative in order to win back viewers. All they need to do is become balanced in their coverage.

Unfortunately, networks like CNN and MSNBC would “rather go down in flames” than provide fair and balanced news coverage, Bozell concluded:

“But the point was, if you’re CNN and you want to regain your audience, well within 15 seconds a market analysis will tell you the conservatives left. Bring back- don’t go with the conservative standpoint, just even out, balance out your network coverage. Go back to news and you’re going to bring conservatives back.”

“They’d rather go down in flames than do that. MSNBC would rather go down in flames. All these networks. Look at Fox, if you’re looking at this as a business proposition, the big kid on the block is Fox. So what do they do? They do the opposite of Fox. They know what they’re doing. They’d rather go down in flames than do what Fox is doing.”