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L. Brent Bozell III

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Leo Brent Bozell III
Born (1955-07-14) July 14, 1955 (age 69)
Washington, DC
Other namesL. Brent Bozell, Brent Bozell
EducationB.A. in history, University of Dallas
Occupation(s)writer, activist, president of MRC
Employer(s)Media Research Center, Parents Television Council, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Leo Brent Bozell III (born July 14, 1955 in Washington, DC) is the founder and president of the Media Research Center, the Conservative Communications Center, and the Cybercast News Service. Bozell served as president of the Parents Television Council from 1995 to 2006, after which he was succeeded by Timothy F. Winter. He is also a class AA douchebag. In addition, currently, Bozell serves on the board for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a group against the defamation of Catholics in America. He also has served on the board of directors in the American Conservative Union for some time.

Currently, Bozell is the founder and president of the Media Research Center, which works to detect alleged liberal bias in the media and "neutralize its impact on the American political scene".

Career

Early career

After receiving his B.A. in history from the University of Dallas, Bozell joined the National Conservative Political Action Committee, working with the group's founder, Terry Dolan, to help elect conservative politicians. Bozell headed NCPAC for a brief period after Dolan's death in 1986, resigning in 1987 to start the Media Research Center.

Media Research Center

Further information: ]

Before founding the MRC in 1987, Bozell ran the National Conservative Foundation project at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he moderated debates between Sam Donaldson and Bob Novak over media bias.

In 1998, Bozell founded the Conservative Communications Center. The MRC also established CNSNews.com, the site of the Conservative News Service later becoming known as Cybercast News Service, as well as numerous other MRC-affiliated web sites. 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 his MSNBC news program Countdown with Keith Olbermann, as Olbermann named Bozell the "Worst Person in the World" several times in 2006 and 2007. In response, Bozell posted a press release on the MRC site claiming that Countdown "Preaches Hate Speech".

Parents Television Council

Further information: ]

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

In 2001, the PTC also organized a mass advertiser boycott of the professional wrestling television program WWF SmackDown! over claims that the program caused the deaths of young children who they felt were influenced by watching the program, only later to be sued by the WWF over claims that the PTC used false statements in their campaign. That year, Bozell and the PTC had appeared as the subject of criticism in the book Foley is Good: And The Real World is Faker Than Wrestling, a memoir published by former WWF wrestler Mick Foley, who questioned the reasoning and research that the PTC used to associate SmackDown with violent acts performed by children watching the program. In July 2002, Bozell settled the WWE lawsuit out of court, the PTC paying $3.5 million to the WWE.

During his tenure as PTC president, Bozell led many campaigns following the PTC's mission to restore its view of decency to the entertainment industry. Among the numerous campaigns Bozell has led with the PTC have included campaigning to bring back the "Family Viewing Hour", filing complaints with the FCC over what he sees as indecent programs, and boycotting corporations that advertise on television programs that the organization believes to be offensive. Among the PTC's largest campaigns for FCC complaints was over the 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in which co-performer Justin Timberlake caused the brief exposure of lead performer Janet Jackson's right breast, leading the CBS network that carried the halftime show to be fined $550,000 by the FCC. PTC filed about 65,000 complaints, and Bozell was concerned that many children were likely to have been watching the halftime show, as he told the Associated Press a few days after the show. In fact, excluding Super Bowl-related complaints, the vast majority of FCC complaints from 2003 to 2006 were found to have come from PTC.

Responding to two columns that Bozell wrote in early 2005, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Neva Chonin claimed that Bozell wanted to forbid offensive television programs not only from his views, but "from all our living rooms, choice and taste be damned." Television Watch, an organization promoting parental responsibility for children's television viewing over increased government regulation of television, used a short clip of Bozell saying that the V-Chip is ineffective at blocking inappropriate television programs in a promotional video released in July 2005 intended to claim that special-interest groups like Bozell's own Parents Television Council are using such propaganda to justify increased government control of the public airwaves.

Culture and Media Institute

Main article: Culture and Media Institute

In October 2006, Bozell founded the Culture and Media Institute, whose mission is to reduce what he claims to be a negative liberal influence on American morality, culture, and religious liberty. To this day, he remains an advisor to the Parents Television Council.

Written works

His articles have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and National Review. He is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Creators Syndicate, and he is a regular on television, including the Fox News Channel program Hannity & Colmes. He writes two weekly columns, one covering the news media published Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and one covering entertainment published Thursdays or Fridays on the sites for the Media Research Center and Cybercast News Service. Other web sites such as Townhall.com, Catholic Exchange, Yahoo! News, and others have published these columns. For some time, the Parents Television Council web site carried Bozell's entertainment column, but as of late January 2008, the PTC no longer hosts the columns, instead linking to the columns hosted on the MRC web site. In his columns, Bozell has written about such topics as media consolidation, indecency, media violence, and anti-Christian prejudice.

Bibliography

To date, Bozell has written three books covering the news media.

Personal life and views

He is a nephew of conservative writer and National Review founder William F. Buckley through Bozell's mother, Patricia Buckley Bozell. His father (L. Brent Bozell Jr., a Catholic convert) was Buckley's debating partner at Yale University and a conservative activist; his grandfather, Leo B. Bozell, was a co-founder of Bozell Worldwide. L. Brent Bozell III has a wife, Norma, and five children, David, L. Brent IV, Joseph, Caitlin, and Reid, and lives with his family in Alexandria, Virginia. Bozell has stated that contrary to speculation by some in the media, he is not a Republican.

Reactions

Awards and recognition

Bozell was named the 1998 "Alumnus of the Year" at the University of Dallas. That same year, Grove City College named Bozell "Pew Memorial Lecturer".

Criticism

Media Matters for America, a self-described progressive media watchdog organization, has cited numerous examples of perceived misinformation that Bozell has publicly stated. Bozell's stance on morality has been questioned. Commentator Paul Waldman writes that he was confronted by Bozell after an appearance with him on The O'Reilly Factor, profanely attacking his commentary on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

References

  1. LBB Columns Media Research. Accessed 2007-04-15
  2. ^ Brent Bozell NNDB.com Biography. Accessed 2007-04-15
  3. "PTC President Bozell Announces Decision to Step Down and Welcomes Tim Winter as New President" (Press release). Parents Television Council. 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  4. ^ Group calls for voluntary return to TV 'family hour'. CNN: August 1, 2001.
  5. ^ About L. Brent Bozell. Creators.com
  6. About Media Research Center
  7. Parents Television Council sees new era, by Michael Learmouth, Variety, March 17, 2007
  8. ^ Media Research Center biography of Bozell. Accessed 2007-07-16.
  9. Conservative Official Resigns, New York Times, September 1, 1987
  10. Bozell, Weapons of Mass Distortion, p. 18.
  11. The ConWebWatch Primer. ConWebWatch: September 4, 2007.
  12. Olbermann, Keith (December 1, 2006.). "'Worst Person in the World': Brent Bozell". MSNBC. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. Fishel, Ben (2006-06-29). "Olbermann named Beck third "Worst Person" for Nazi/NY Times comparison; Bozell took top honor for touting debunked WMD discovery". MediaMatters.org. Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2007-07-16. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. Olbermann, Keith (2006-10-16). "World's Worst first: A five-way tie". MSNBC. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
  15. "Olbermann again named Limbaugh "today's worst person in the world," Bozell "a very close second"". MediaMatters.org. Media Matters for America. 2005-08-22. Retrieved 2007-07-16. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann preaches hate speech and liberal media are silent.
  17. Poniewozik, James (2005-03-20). "The Decency Police". Time. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  18. What is the PTC's mission? Parents Television Council Frequently Asked Questions
  19. ^ Higgins, John M. (2002-07-15). "Bozell's $3.5M apology". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
  20. Foley, Mick (2001). Foley is Good: And The Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. New York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 451–460. ISBN 0060393009. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  21. Smith, Dinitia (2001-05-22). "A Wrestler Who Prefers the Pen to the Pin". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  22. "FCC Proposes Statutory Maximum Fine of $550,000 Against Viacom-Owned CBS Affiliates for Apparent Violation fo Indecency Rules During Broadcast of Super Bowl Halftime Show" (Press release). Federal Communications Commission. 2004-09-22.
  23. "Broadcast Indecency Campaign". Parents Television Council. 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2008-01-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  24. "The Jackson stunt: What now?". CNN.com. Associated Press. 2004-02-06. Retrieved 2008-01-27. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  25. Shields, Todd (2004-12-06). "Activists Dominate Content Complaints". Mediaweek. Parents Television Council. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
  26. Bozell, L. Brent III (2005-02-17). "Is Sweeps Month Lesbian Month?". MRC.org. Creators Syndicate. Retrieved 2007-07-11. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  27. Bozell, L. Brent III (2005-04-01). "Moses vs. 'Desperate Housewives'". MRC.org. Creators Syndicate. Retrieved 2007-07-11. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  28. Chonin, Neva (2005-04-24). "Warning: Graphic Content". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. PK-22. Retrieved 2007-07-11. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  29. EXPOSED! Why Special Interests Don’t Want You to Use the V-Chip (Windows Media Video). Television Watch. 2005-07-14. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  30. "EXPOSED! Why Special Interests Don't Want You to Use the V-Chip" (Press release). Television Watch. 2005-07-14. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  31. PTC Advisory Board listing as of September 14, 2007. Bozell's photo is displayed at the very bottom right corner.
  32. Benen, Steve (2008-03-09). "Far-right offers hints to McCain on how to win their support". The Carpetbagger Report. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  33. Bozell, L. Brent III (2008-03-09). "From the Right, He Looks Too Blue". The Washington Post. p. B1. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  34. Bozell, L. Brent III (2005-04-28). "Viewers want end to 'slime'". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
  35. Bozell's Entertainment Column - 2008 Archive - Media Research Center
  36. Bozell's News Column - 2008 Archive - Media Research Center
  37. CNSNews.com - Brent Bozell Column Archive
  38. Brent Bozell's Weekly Entertainment Column
  39. Bozell, Weapons of Mass Distortion, p. 5.
  40. CNN.com - Transcripts
  41. L. Brent Bozell - Media Matters
  42. Waldman, Paul (2004-08-19). "Mad As Hell - How I got a disturbing view of Brent Bozell's undying rage". Retrieved 2007-04-15.

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