Romenesko: Anti-Gay Conservative Brent Bozell Does It with Another Man (His Column)

Brent Bozell, founder and president of the conservative media watchdog and keeper-of-tabs on all things openly-gay Media Research Center, writes a nationally syndicated column that runs under his own byline, but according to a report by Jim Romenesko, another man has been hard at work under that byline.

Three former MRC employees told Romenesko that Bozell’s column inches are completely filled up by MRC’s Tim Graham, and Bozell’s syndicator now says that Graham and Bozell do it together. Romenesko’s sources also told him that Graham’s wife so resents the “forced ghostrwriting” that she refuses to attend MRC events.

Another former MRC employee confirmed Graham’s ghostwriting, but defended it on the basis that President Obama doesn’t write his speeches, which is sort of a remix of Rand Paul’s explanation for why it’s okay for him to plagiarize speeches.

The real meat of Romenesko’s story, though, is his correspondence with Bozell’s syndicator, who took a stern view of ghostwriting when they didn’t know it was Bozell that Romenesko was asking about:

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.

Their tune, and their story, changed when Romenesko brought up Bozell:

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.’

Romenesko brought that explanation to his source, who still insists Graham and Bozell are not doing the column together. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

[Editor’s note: This post has been updated to correct the spelling of Romenesko’s last name. It previously appeared, incorrectly, as “Romanesko.”]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.