On Tuesday’s O’Reilly Factor, guests Michelle Malkin and Kirsten Powers offered what they thought were the top stories of 2006. The number one story on Michelle Malkin’s list was "mainstream media war coverage." Malkin spoke of the "eroding credibility" of the mainstream media from leaking classified information to doctoring photos and airing terrorist propaganda. This prompted her to conclude that there are "a lot of people questioning which side of the war these mainstream media outlets have been on." The entire transcript is below.
Bill O’Reilly: "Alright Michelle, surprisingly mainstream media war coverage. Why was that your top story?"
Michelle Malkin: "Well, I think that the slow and steady erosion of mainstream media credibility has been going on for quite a while, but 2006 was really a milestone. And I did a little poll on my website, michellemalkin.com, asking people who they thought was the worst media performer of the year. And the New York Times ran away with the prize. And I think they started off the year, if you'll recall, blabbing about the NSA's domestic surveillance program. And there was a huge uproar about that from the public. The New York Times refused to acknowledge that this program was very valuable in gathering intelligence and information that was helping in the War on Terror and our prosecution of the War on Terror. And they didn't listen to the public. I mean they went on to blab about, about a number of programs, and they set a role model for other papers. You saw the USA Today and the Los Angeles Times blab about another top secret program, that was-"
O’Reilly: "Alright, so it wasn't, it wasn't the criticism of the war, it was divulging secrets that made it more difficult for the U.S.A. to wage the War on Terror. That's what you thought."
Malkin: "Well that, that was part of it, but that's not the bottom line. Because you also had CNN broadcasting sniper video, and a lot of people questioning which side of the war these mainstream media outlets have been on. And then you had a lot of fake war reporting going on that was exposed by the internet and the blogosphere. You had Reuters in the middle of this massive media scandal that didn't get nearly as much coverage as it should have with one of its photographers faking smoke during the Lebanon-Israel conflict-"
O’Reilly: "Right, right."
Malkin: "-raising all sorts of questions about photography in the War on Terror."
O’Reilly: "OK. The good news is the mainstream media is losing a lot of steam and fast."
