Perpetually peeved conservative "writer" and president of Media Research Center Brent Bozell, whose stated mission is to "prove—through sound scientific research—that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values", has been exposed by blogger Jim Romeneski for forcing an underling to write his column and books while taking credit for himself.
Writing at his blog, Romeneski says he was contacted by a former employee at the MRC who exposed Bozell's practice of using a ghostwriter for his weekly syndicated column and other published pieces. The accusation was corroborated by several others affiliated with the organization.
It is longtime MRC media analysis director Tim Graham who writes “almost everything published under [Bozell's] name,” a former MRC employee tells me in an email. “That includes his weekly column. Same goes for his books, which at least carry Graham’s name in a secondary billing, but also aren’t written by Bozell (but Bozell keeps 80-90% of the advance and all profits!)”
Two other people with ties to MRC confirmed that Graham is Bozell’s ghostwriter – and that Graham is not happy with the assignment.
I was advised to contact a third MRC employee who, I was told, would confirm Graham’s ghostwriting duties. He did that, but defended the practice of “people signing off on agreeable words written for them.” He asked me: “How many speeches has Obama written the last ten years? Should he have prefaced the State of the Union with ‘My fellow Americans – I didn’t write this?’”
Romeneski's attempt to contact both Bozell and Graham went unanswered. Romeneski then contacted
Creators Syndicate, the distributors of Bozell column, and asked about their ghostwriting policy. He e-mailed a woman named Aimee Kuvadia who forwarded it on to the president of Creators Syndicate, Rick Newcombe. Newcombe responded.
Aimee sent me your email, which I found strange. Obviously someone is spreading malicious gossip about someone else, whether it is true or not. If you know of one of our columnists who supposedly is not writing the column but rather “assigning an underling to pen them (an underling who is not credited),” I think it only fair that you tell us who has been accused of this so we can talk to the columnist. Yes, we expect all of our columnists to write their own columns, though we understand that some work closely with researchers.
When Romeneski responded to Newcombe that he was referencing Brent Bozell, he received this curious reply.
It is absolutely false to say that Brent Bozell does not write his column. … I remember years ago when Brent suggested that he share the byline for his column with Tim, and I said it would be better for us to promote a single individual. We have decided, however, that since Tim works so closely with Brent on the column, we have changed it to a joint byline. But I will say it again, it is absolutely incorrect to claim that ‘Brent Bozell does not write the column you distribute.’”
Bolding by Romeneski
Um, say what? "We deny categorically that Bozell doesn't write his own stuff, so we we have decided we're just going to add a byline anyway." The ex-employee tipster wasn't swayed, telling Romeneski that what they need to do is strip Bozell's name of the column completely and give full credit to Graham.
So here is a man who, having made it his mission to seek out bias in the media and hold it accountable to ultra-conservative standards, finds it reasonable to take credit for someone else's writing. Not to say that what Graham has written for Bozell is the stuff of journalistic greatness, but still, it was Graham's work for which he deserves the credit (or the blame).
Via Talking Points Memo