One thing I learned while working on Spinsanity is never to trust the Media Research Center, which continually puts out work based on quote-doctoring, taking things out of context, etc. (see here and here).

As a result, I wasn’t surprised when Greg Sargent of TPM caught the supposed watchdogs of liberal media bias in the act:

Brent Bozell and Tim Graham are both top officials with a conservative media watchdog group called the “Media Research Center,” an outfit that’s devoted to ferreting out the fifth column liberal bias that has infected our media and is busily working to destroy our country from within.

Bozell and Graham have now co-authored an article for National Review calling on the media to stop lauding Hillary. One thing they hold up as proof of the media’s liberal conspiracy to promote Hillary is this:

When it comes to Hillary Clinton, the national media have flagrantly abandoned their duty as a supposedly independent, dispassionate press. They have shamelessly served as cheerleaders for Mrs. Clinton from the moment she emerged on the national scene in 1992, with Time’s Margaret Carlson describing her as “an amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.”

Wow — did Margaret Carlson really describe Hillary in such gushing and cringe-worthy terms?

Well, no, as it turns out. No, she didn’t.

The original article Carlson wrote is still online. Here’s what she actually said:

Friends of Hillary Clinton would have you believe she is an amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa and Oliver Wendell Holmes. She gets up before dawn, even on weekends, and before her first cup of coffee discusses educational reform. She then hops into her fuel-efficient car with her perfectly behaved daughter for a day of good works.

Fortunately, Hillary Clinton, the latest wife to be challenged to fit perfectly into the ill-defined role of political spouse, is more interesting than that.

As you can see, Carlson was actually mocking Hillary supporters for presenting her in such glowing terms. But Bozell and Graham cheerfully told National Review‘s readers that Carlson herself had presented her in these terms. Even more amusingly, they held this up as proof of the media’s liberal bias.

Sargent then discovered that the chopped-up quote is a centerpiece of a book written by the duo, one of whom (Graham) actually defends the quote by saying the rest of the article is nice to Hillary. Unbelievable.