Media Matters for America summary, February 28, 2008
Here are today’s news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or ‘read more’ to read the entirety of each story.
AP again reported McCain “didn’t embrace the [bitch] epithet” without noting that he called the question “excellent”
Associated Press reporter Liz Sidoti wrote: “Last fall, [Sen. John] McCain faced criticism for initially not repudiating a voter in South Carolina who called [Sen. Hillary Rodham] Clinton a ‘bitch.’ McCain chuckled in response to the voter’s question, but didn’t embrace the epithet.” Sidoti further reported: “A few minutes later, [McCain] said he respected Clinton, a New York senator and colleague.” However, Sidoti made no mention of the fact that McCain first called the question “excellent” and then pointed to a Rasmussen poll that he said showed him beating Clinton in a head-to-head matchup. Read More
Ignoring Obama’s repeated denunciations of Farrakhan during debate, NY Times quoted him only as saying, “I obviously can’t censor him. … It is not support that I sought”
After reporting that, at the Democratic presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama “was asked whether he would reject the support of Louis Farrakhan,” The New York Times’ Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny purported to convey Obama’s response, but left out Obama’s repeated denunciation of Farrakhan’s comments, writing only: ” ‘I obviously can’t censor him,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘It is not support that I sought.’ ” Read More
MSNBC’s Buchanan compounded sexist comments, misquoted Samuel Johnson
Referring to comments he had made about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s voice, MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan said on the February 27 edition of Morning Joe, “Look, the famous Dr. Johnson, and I hate to repeat it, said, you know, ‘To hear a woman speaking is to watch a dog walking on its hind legs … Sure, he said you’re surprised not to see it done — not that it’s not done well, but to see it done at all.” Read More
Following McCain rally appearance, Bill Cunningham used Obama’s middle name seven times on Hannity & Colmes
On Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, conservative radio talk-show host Bill Cunningham used Sen. Barack Obama’s middle name seven times in referring to the candidate. Cunningham appeared on the show the same day he appeared at a rally for Sen. John McCain and repeatedly used Obama’s middle name. Read More
Russert persisted in questioning Obama on Farrakhan — even after his repeated “denunciation[s]” of Farrakhan’s “unacceptable and reprehensible” comments
During the February 26 Democratic primary debate, Tim Russert repeatedly questioned Sen. Barack Obama about his endorsement by Louis Farrakhan without noting that the campaign was quoted criticizing Farrakhan in the very article Russert cited to note the minister’s support, that Obama himself said in a speech the day before the debate that he is a “consistent denunciator of Louis Farrakhan,” or that Obama denounced Farrakhan’s comments in his response to Russert’s initial question on the subject. Read More
AP gets FISA, wiretapping authority wrong again
An AP article falsely suggested that the U.S. government does not currently have the authority to “eavesdrop[] on phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists.” The article also claimed, “The Senate has already passed its version of the measure to renew the law, which expired Feb. 16.” In fact, what expired on February 16 was the Protect America Act’s revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; the federal government still has the authority under FISA to listen in on the communications of suspected terrorists. The AP made similar false suggestions in a January report. Read More
Fox’s Gretchen Carlson said “connotation” of Obama’s middle name is that he is a “Muslim potentially” — but he’s not
While discussing conservative radio host Bill Cunningham’s repeated reference to Sen. Barack Obama’s middle name — Hussein — Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson asserted: “[T]he silent thing that nobody is really talking about here is the reason that he was saying the middle name so many times … is because the connotation is that Barack Obama is a Muslim potentially. His father was a Muslim.” Carlson then referred to claims that Obama is a Muslim as “rumors,” but neither she nor co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade pointed out that those rumors are false, and that Obama is a Christian. Read More
MSNBC ad for McCain documentary said McCain “mastered the art of straight talk”
Promoting a documentary on Sen. John McCain, an MSNBC announcer asserted: “Before he was a senator, before running for president, John McCain mastered the art of straight talk.” MSNBC has made numerous references to McCain’s “straight talk.” Read More
Media diagnose Hillary “Sybil” Clinton with “mood swings,” depression, and “multiple personality disorder”
In recent days, members of the media asserted that Sen. Hillary Clinton displayed “mood swings,” “could be depressed,” “[r]esembl[ed] someone with multiple personality disorder,” and “has turned into Sybil.” Read More
Matthews, Carlson, Wolffe “impress[ed]” by McCain’s denunciation of Cunningham remarks, despite McCain’s own smears and failure to denounce others’
On MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews, Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson, and Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe praised Sen. John McCain for his response to radio host Bill Cunningham’s repeated references to Sen. Barack Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” at a February 26 rally for McCain. But they did not mention that McCain apparently has yet to distance himself from the comments of Rep. Rob Portman, who followed Cunningham at the rally, or note McCain’s own smears. Read More
Media uncritically report McCain surprised by Cunningham’s remarks despite Cunningham’s history of using Obama’s middle name
NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell and CNN’s John King asserted that Sen. John McCain was surprised by conservative radio talk-show host Bill Cunningham’s controversial remarks about Sen. Barack Obama at a February 26 McCain rally, failing to note that Cunningham has previously referred to Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” and “Barack Mohammed Hussein Obama.” Fox News’ Molly Henneberg suggested McCain could not have expected Cunningham to refer to Obama’s middle name, even though Cunningham did just that on Fox News a month ago. Read More
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Misinformation of the Year
http://mediamatters.org/items/200712220006
It’s still not just Imus
Media Matters for America usually takes the opportunity at the end of the year to name a Misinformer of the Year, an individual or media entity who in that year has made a noteworthy “contribution” to the advancement of conservative misinformation. This year — a year in which Don Imus was removed from his decades-long radio program following a reference to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” (Imus returned to the air in December) — Media Matters has decided to change the focus of the year-end item. The Imus controversy resulted in intense media attention to the subject of speech concerning race and gender. At the time, Media Matters thought it necessary to remind the media that “It’s not just Imus” — that speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity permeates the airwaves, through personalities including Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Michael Savage. But offensive and degrading speech is not limited to conservative media personalities and “shock jocks,” although they are, of course, well-represented on any such list. As Media Matters has documented throughout this year, speech that targets or casts in a negative light race, gender, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and sexual orientation can be found throughout the media, and it often bears directly on politics and policy. That speech has earned the title of Misinformation of the Year 2007.
Race or national origin
- Fox News host John Gibson, discussing events surrounding the so-called Jena Six during the September 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, asserted that the demonstrators who had gathered the previous week in Jena, Louisiana, “wanna fight the white devil.” Gibson aired news coverage of the Jena 6 protests and challenged protestors’ claims that the incidents in Jena were representative of ongoing racism in this country. He said: “[W]hat they’re worried about is a mirage of 1950s-style American segregation, racism from the South. They wanna fight the white devil. … [T]here’s no — can’t go fight the black devil. Black devils stalking their streets every night gunning down their own people — can’t go fight that. That would be snitchin’.”
Gibson also stated during the October 10 broadcast of his radio show, while discussing an incident in which a student shot four people at his Cleveland high school before killing himself, that “I know the shooter was white. I knew it as soon as he shot himself. Hip-hoppers don’t do that. They shoot and move on to shoot again.” - Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage claimed on Martin Luther King Day (January 15) that “civil rights” has become a “con” and asserted, “It’s a racket that is used to exploit primarily heterosexual, Christian, white males’ birthright and steal from them what is their birthright and give it to people who didn’t qualify for it.”
- On the February 7 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club, host Pat Robertson said that people who have received too much plastic surgery “got the eyes like they’re Oriental” while he put his fingers up to the side of his face.
- Discussing a dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s, during the September 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Bill O’Reilly stated that he “couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.” Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O’Reilly said: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ You know, I mean, everybody was — it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.” O’Reilly also stated: “I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They’re getting away from the Sharptons and the [Rev. Jesse] Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They’re just trying to figure it out. ‘Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.’”
- On the June 18 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz advocated building a “double fence along the Mexican border, and stop the damn invasion.” Boortz continued: “I don’t care if Mexicans pile up against that fence like tumbleweeds in the Santa Ana winds in Southern California. Let ‘em. You know, then just run a couple of taco trucks up and down the line, and somebody’s gonna be a millionaire out of that.”
On the June 11 edition of his show, a caller asked, “Why can’t we just load them on planes and keep on loading them until they’re back?” Boortz later responded, “We’re not gonna throw these people out of airplanes with taco-shaped parachutes.”
During his June 21 show, Boortz offered a suggestion he said he got from a listener’s email: “When we defeat this illegal alien amnesty bill, and when we yank out the welcome mat, and they all start going back to Mexico, as a going away gift let’s all give them a box of nuclear waste.” Boortz continued: “Give ‘em all a little nuclear waste and let ‘em take it on down there to Mexico. Tell ‘em it can — it’ll heat tortillas.” - In his book Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart (Thomas Dunne Books, November 2007), MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan writes that America is “on a path to national suicide” and later asks: “How is America committing suicide?” answering: “Every way a nation can.” He proceeds to claim that “[t]he American majority is not reproducing itself. … Forty-five million of its young have been destroyed in the womb since Roe v. Wade, as Asian, African, and Latin American children come to inherit the estate the lost generation of American children never got to see.” On the November 26 edition of Hannity & Colmes, Buchanan asserted: “You’ve got a wholesale invasion, the greatest invasion in human history, coming across your southern border, changing the composition and character of your country. You’ve got the melting pot that once welded us all together, which has broken down.”
- On the May 17 edition of his radio program, Savage labeled Hispanic advocacy group the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) “the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people.” Savage also said of NCLR, “This is the most stone racist group I’ve ever seen in this country!” despite noting, “It’s true they haven’t hung anybody.”
- During his July 5 radio show, Savage discussed a hunger strike organized by five students in the San Francisco area to show their support for The DREAM Act, a provision of the 2007 comprehensive immigration bill that was blocked in the Senate on June 28 (S.1639). The DREAM (or Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act would provide a pathway to citizenship and other benefits for certain illegal immigrants who entered the United States before the age of 16 if they graduate from high school and enroll in either college or the military. In discussing the students, Savage stated: “I would say, let them fast until they starve to death then that solves the problem. Because then we won’t have a problem about giving them green cards because they’re illegal aliens, they don’t belong here to begin with.” The DREAM Act was later brought up in the Senate as a stand-alone bill (S.2205). That bill was also blocked.
- On the January 16 broadcast of his radio show, O’Reilly agreed with a caller’s assertion that illegal immigrants “bring corrupting influences” to the United States, including “a third-world value system” that “can corrupt the education system.” O’Reilly replied: “Absolutely. And that’s why the dropout rate is so high.”
Gender
- During the December 17 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, while discussing endorsements Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) received for her presidential campaign, host Chris Matthews claimed: “Every day I pick up the paper and there’s another quote out there from somebody who’s a wannabe, saying whatever the Clinton people told them to say apparently.” Moments later, Matthews asked Financial Times U.S. managing editor Chrystia Freeland: “[A]ren’t you appalled at the willingness of these people to become castratos in the eunuch chorus here or whatever they are?”
- On the March 20 edition of MSNBC show, Tucker Carlson said of Hillary Clinton: “[T]here’s just something about her that feels castrating, overbearing, and scary.” Carlson has also said: “[W]hen she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.”
- Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh repeatedly used the expression “testicle lockbox,” suggesting that Clinton has one.
- On the March 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck said: “Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because … there’s something about her vocal range.” He went on to say, “There’s something about her voice that just drives me — it’s not what she says, it’s how she says it,” adding, “She is like the stereotypical — excuse the expression, but this is the way to — she’s the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?” Beck also asked: “[A]fter four years, don’t you think every man in America will go insane?” and pleaded, “I’m sorry for being such a pig. But please, America. Please. I don’t think I could do it for four years. I mean, sure the country is going to go to hell in a handbasket, but could we make this about me for a second? I just don’t think I could take it from her.” He also said that “there is a range in women’s voices that experts say is just the chalk, I mean, the fingernails on the blackboard.”
- On November 12, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (AZ) fielded a question from a woman who asked, “How do we beat the bitch?” On the November 14 edition of CNN’s American Morning, during a discussion with co-anchor Kiran Chetry about McCain’s response to the question, Politico chief political correspondent Mike Allen said, “[W]hat Republican voter hasn’t thought that? What voter in general hasn’t thought that?”
- On the October 15 edition of MSNBC’s Tucker, Carlson asserted that “the Clinton campaign says: ‘Hillary isn’t running as a woman.’ …Well, that’s actually completely false, considering the Hillary campaign — and I get their emails — relentlessly pushes the glass ceiling argument. ‘You should vote for her because she’s a woman.’ They say that all the time.” Guest Cliff May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, responded: “At least call her a Vaginal-American.”
- Discussing Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) speech following her election as the nation’s first female Speaker of the House, Limbaugh noted on the January 5 broadcast of his show that Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) said that, in Limbaugh’s words, “his 2-year-old daughter … is inspired by Nancy Pelosi’s ascension to the speakership.” Limbaugh then commented, “His 2-year-old can’t possibly know who Pelosi is other than as a cartoon figure on television. Maybe Pelosi breastfed him, I don’t know, when the kid was pregnant. Who knows? She’s capable of doing everything else.” Limbaugh later added: “[L]ook at Ms. Pelosi. Why, she can multitask. She can breastfeed, she can clip her toenails, she can direct the House, all while the kids are sitting on her lap at the same time.”
- On the December 12 broadcast of his radio show, Savage referred to Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Pelosi as “yentas,” said Harman should “[g]o home and cook verenikis,” and suggested that the three were in office because they “have rich husbands who put them in power with their money, so they could have a little hobby in between getting their nails done.” Savage later asked his “board operator” if he would rather “be waterboarded for 30 seconds or eat Jane Harman’s ravioli” and whether he’d rather “be waterboarded or eat Nancy Pelosi’s tortellini.”
Religion
False attacks on Obama
- On January 17, the conservative online news magazine InsightMag.com published an article headlined “Hillary’s team has questions about Obama’s Muslim background.” The article alleged that “researchers” connected to Clinton’s campaign had “discovered” that Obama “was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia,” and “spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia.” The article cited only unnamed “[s]ources close to the background check” on Obama. The story was quickly debunked by CNN and others, who found that the Indonesian school Obama attended as a child was not a “madrassa,” and that claims of Obama’s “Muslim background” were based largely on incomplete and inaccurate reporting. After investigating these claims, the Chicago Tribune reported that “Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia.” Moreover, as ABC News chief political correspondent Jake Tapper noted in a January 25 ABCNews.com post, the allegation that the Clinton campaign was behind the Obama smear was a “charge that remains unproven and unsubstantiated.” Despite the Insight article’s thin sourcing and the fact that it was quickly debunked, the article became a flash point for a smear against Obama that has persisted in the media.
- On January 23, KSFO Morning Show hosts Melanie Morgan and Lee Rodgers repeated the accusation that “researchers connected to” Clinton have said that Obama “spent at least four years in a so-called madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia.” Rodgers stated that Obama “went to a Muslim school, a madrassa they call it … those things are funded by Saudi Arabia,” adding, “It’s basically a school for terrorists.” Morgan noted that there was “controversy” surrounding the InsightMag.com story, but that “Insight magazine is standing by its story,” and also charged that the story came from the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC).
- On the June 25 broadcast of his radio show, Savage said that Obama was “indoctrinated” by a “Muslim madrassa in Indonesia.”
- In the April 12 edition of her “Notebook” video blog, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked, “Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?” and proceeded to repeat debunked rumors surrounding Obama’s childhood years in Indonesia. Couric claimed that Obama’s “background sparked rumors that he had studied at a radical madrassa, or Quranic school — rumors his campaign denied, declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian.” But Couric did not note in her initial posting that the rumors had been debunked. Couric’s “Notebook” was later updated to note that the madrassa “rumors [were] later disproved” and that the source for the claim that Obama “grew up praying in a mosque” later backed off that assertion.
Smearing Obama’s church
- During the “Obameter” segment on the February 7 edition of MSNBC’s Tucker, Carlson claimed the church “sounds separatist to me” and “contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity,” a subject Carlson said he was “actually qualified to discuss.” Carlson pointed to the “disavowal of the pursuit of ‘middleclassness’ ” in the church’s tenets, calling the church’s mission a “racially exclusive theology” and “a theology that ministers to one group of people, based on race.” Carlson claimed that Trinity’s theology is “racially exclusive” and “wrong,” adding that “it’s hard to call that Christianity.”
- On the February 28 edition of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, Hannity stated that “many” call Trinity “separatist,” adding that “in some cases, even drawing comparisons to a cult.” Guest Erik Rush, a columnist for the conservative website WorldNetDaily, said that the church’s “scary doctrine” is “something that you’d see in more like a cult or an Aryan Brethren Church or something like that.” Hannity has also repeatedly accused Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright — Trinity’s pastor — of holding “these black-separatist views, about the Black Value System” without mentioning Wright’s explicit denial on the March 1 edition of Hannity & Colmes that his church embraces separatism. And on the December 19 edition of Hannity & Colmes, Hannity said: “You know, Barack Obama’s pastor… has this whole list of the Black Value System. It seems like he’s supporting a segregated church.”
Coulter’s comments about Jews
- During the October 8 edition of CNBC’s The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: “If you had your way … and your dreams, which are genuine, came true … what would this country look like?” Coulter responded, “It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that’s what I think heaven is going to look like.” She described the convention as follows: “People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America.” Deutsch then asked, “It would be better if we were all Christian?” to which Coulter responded, “Yes.” Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: “[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians,” and Coulter again replied, “Yes.” When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like “the head of Iran” and “wipe Israel off the Earth,” Coulter stated: “No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. … That’s what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws.”
After a commercial break, Deutsch said that “Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment,” and asked her, “So you don’t think that was offensive?” Coulter responded: “No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be. I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.” Coulter later said: “We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.”
Attacks on Islam or Muslims
- On the March 14 edition of Fox News’ Your World With Neil Cavuto, Richard “Bo” Dietl, a private investigator and former New York City Police Department detective, discussed a lawsuit filed by six imams who were removed from a US Airways flight in 2006 and suggested that instead of flying, passengers such as the aforementioned imams should “call their cousin up there, Ali Baba Boo, and go by cab.”
- On the June 12 edition of The 700 Club, following a report on Muslims in Minneapolis seeking religious accommodations at school and work, Robertson stated, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have to recognize that Islam is not a religion. It is a worldwide political movement meant on domination of the world. And it is meant to subjugate all people under Islamic law.” He characterized the American Muslim community as “Islam light” and went on to say Muslims “want to take over and we want to impose Sharia on you. And before long, ladies are going to be dressed in burqas and whatever garments they would put on them, and next thing you know, men are going to be allowed to have wife-beating and you’ll be beheading adulterers and so on and so forth.”
- On the October 4 edition of his CNN Headline News show, Beck hosted Sharida McKenzie, a Muslim American who had recently organized the Muslim Peace March, to discuss a report that a Toronto mosque’s website “says that Muslims should stay completely away from Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s, anniversaries, birthdays, and Earth Day.” During the discussion, Beck asked: “But how do we know the difference — I mean, you’re reasonable. How do we know the difference between you and those that are trying to kill us?”
Sexual identity or orientation
- During a March 2 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Coulter said she “can’t really talk about” Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) because “you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot’ ” — a comment that drew loud applause from the CPAC audience. Then on the March 6 broadcast of Hannity’s nationally syndicated radio show, Coulter defended her comment, explaining: “I don’t think there’s anything offensive about any variation of faggy, faggotry, faggot, fag. It’s a schoolyard taunt. It means — it means wussy.” She went on to conclude that “faggot” is a “totally excellent word.”
- In 2007, Savage claimed that same-sex marriage “makes me want to puke” and that same-sex parenting is “child abuse”; blamed sexual reassignment surgery for the Columbine massacre; pointed to sexual reassignment surgery and lesbian fertility clinics in claiming that the September 11 terrorist attacks “was God speaking”; referred to Media Matters as “a gay smear sheet,” the “homosexual mafia,” and the “gay Mafioso”; and declared that a “loving, kind lesbian” is “the type that stuffed ovens in Hitler’s concentration camps.”
- On the July 11 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, O’Reilly objected to the San Diego Padres’ decision to host a gay pride night and a children’s hat giveaway promotion during the same July 8 baseball game, claiming that “cluster[ing]” gays near children is “insane” and “inappropriate.” After a viewer challenged him by noting that “kids are around gays every day, O’Reilly elaborated on his position on the July 12 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, saying that “thousands” of gays in one place “can be confusing to children.”
- In an August 21 post on his CBNnews.com blog, Christian Broadcasting Network senior national correspondent David Brody addressed a federal complaint filed against then-presumptive Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson by blogger Lane Hudson, writing: “Well, now Fred Thompson has an angry girlfriend. His name (don’t go there) is Lane Hudson.” Since then, Brody had appeared three times on NBC’s Meet the Press and four times on MSNBC’s Hardball to discuss the 2008 presidential race. Despite referring to a male blogger as Thompson’s “angry girlfriend,” Brody was invited to appear on the September 9 broadcast of Meet the Press to discuss the election.
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Media Matters for America summary, December 29, 2007
Here are today’s news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or ‘read more’ to read the entirety of each story.
Huff Po: Bill Kristol to Become New York Times Columnist
According to Huffington Post, the New York Times “is set to announce that Bill Kristol will become a weekly columnist in 2008” after leaving Time “in what was reported as a ‘mutual’ decision.” As Media Matters documented, Kristol was chief among a handful of conservative commentators who offered highly optimistic predictions regarding the Iraq war’s duration, difficulty, and human and financial costs — even in the face of evidence to the contrary. But Kristol has not limited himself to misinformation on Iraq; Media Matters has documented numerous instances of conservative misinformation from Kristol on a variety of topics. Read more
Huff Po: Bill Kristol to Become New York Times Columnist
http://mediamatters.org/items/200712290001
According to Huffington Post, the New York Times “is set to announce that Bill Kristol will become a weekly columnist in 2008” after leaving Time “in what was reported as a ‘mutual’ decision.” As Media Matters documented, Kristol was chief among a handful of conservative commentators who offered highly optimistic predictions regarding the Iraq war’s duration, difficulty, and human and financial costs — even in the face of evidence to the contrary. But Kristol has not limited himself to misinformation on Iraq; Media Matters has documented numerous instances of conservative misinformation from Kristol on a variety of topics.
For example:
Echoing White House, Kristol attacked Pelosi for trip to Syria, which GOP-led delegation also visited
Conservative pundits attacked Clinton for perjury and obstruction, but now defend Libby
Wallace failed to challenge Standard editors on debunked story
Kristol falsely claimed Dems “renounce[] the use of force” against “jihadist Islamic threat”
Kristol: I wish Bush had said “a little more about winning” and “a little less about helping the Iraqis”
Kristol’s first Time column contradicted by Time’s own reporting
Kristol repeatedly attacks “critics” of the Bush administration, yet refuses to name, or quote, a single one
Kristol and Kagan falsely claimed exit polls showed public evenly split on “pullout from Iraq”
On Fox News Sunday, Kristol falsely claimed “Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio” are “pro-Bush states”
On Fox, Kristol blamed “voters in Florida” for Foley debacle: “[M]aybe they should have known better”
Kristol accused Democrats — not Republicans — of turning 9-11 anniversary “into a partisan fight”; falsely claimed Bush never attacked Clinton terror policies
Kristol: Democrats oppose Lieberman because he is “pro-American”; Coulter claimed Lamont supporters are “anti-American”
Conservative pundits made wildly wrong claims about how Iraq would turn out — what are they saying now about the Middle East?
Kristol falsely claimed Bush “declassified most” of the NIE
Kristol erroneously cited polls; falsely claimed that, since March, “no new information” Bush misled U.S. into Iraq
Kristol called Britain a “happy ACLU playground” for both “decent dissidents” and terrorists
After GOP source of Schiavo memo was confirmed, Hume, Kristol failed to acknowledge their roles in suggesting Democrats had authored it
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Media Matters for America summary, August 31, 2007
Here are today’s news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or ‘read more’ to read the entirety of each story.
LGBT Issues
Jeanne Moos — in “bathroom humor” segment — was only CNN reporter to cover Carlson story
In the only coverage that CNN has given to Tucker Carlson’s August 28 comments, Jeanne Moos said of Sen. Larry Craig’s arrest during an investigation of “lewd conduct”: “It’s causing commentators to tell personal stories you’d never expect. MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson described how he was once bothered in a men’s room.” Moos then aired a brief clip of Carlson explaining how he responded to being “bothered”: “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the — you know, and grabbed him, and … [h]it him against the stall with his head, actually!”
Read more
MSNBC silent so far on Carlson comments
Following an August 28 segment on MSNBC’s Live with Dan Abrams, during which MSNBC host Tucker Carlson admitted to assaulting an individual who “bothered” him in a restroom in Washington, D.C., Abrams, host and MSNBC’s general manager, did not mention Carlson’s comments on his program the following night, and MSNBC management apparently has not yet made a statement regarding Carlson’s comments. Indeed, the cable network has replayed portions of the segment three times, highlighting Carlson’s account of having been “bothered” in a restroom, but cropping out the part in which Carlson said, “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the — you know, and grabbed him, and … [h]it him against the stall with his head.” On the August 30 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough also referred to Carlson’s claim of having been “bothered” in the men’s room, but did not mention that Carlson “went back with someone,” even though Scarborough was a guest on Abrams’ show when Carlson recounted the alleged high school incident. During the August 28 show, laughter can be heard in the background as Carlson tells Scarborough and Abrams about the incident. Read more
2008 Elections
Right-wing media continue to repeat false claim that Castro endorsed Clinton and Obama
CNN’s Glenn Beck and Fox News’ Dagen McDowell repeated the false claim that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro had given an “endorsement” to Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in a Cuban newspaper column. But nowhere in his column did Castro endorse Clinton or Obama; to the contrary, he attributed to Clinton and Obama a pro-democratic view that he called an “error,” and he said of Clinton and Obama, “They are not making politics: they are playing a game of cards on a Sunday afternoon.”
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Iran
Buchanan, Scarborough claimed that a military strike against Iran would be popular, but polls suggest otherwise
On MSNBC, Pat Buchanan claimed that a U.S. attack on Iran is “comin[g]” and went on to assert that a military strike against Iran would be “a very popular initial move.” Joe Scarborough agreed, stating that “a military strike against Iran initially would be extraordinarily popular with the American people.” But polling data show that most Americans say they would oppose an attack on Iran.
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Ethics
Buchanan repeated discredited claim that Rep. Frank “had a fellow running … basically a full-service whorehouse in his basement”
On MSNBC, Pat Buchanan asserted that Rep. Barney Frank “had a fellow running a — basically a full-service whorehouse in his basement.” In fact, the House ethics committee found that the man’s initial public assertions that he had run a prostitution ring out of Frank’s residence were contradicted by evidence and the sworn testimony of third parties. Read more
Propaganda/Noise Machine
NBC’s Myers advanced “value[s] voters” myth, cited Tony Perkins
During a report on the fallout from Sen. Larry Craig’s guilty plea for misdemeanor disorderly conduct, NBC’s Lisa Myers reported that Tony Perkins says “value voters have lost faith in the Republican Party and warns that Republicans had better be sure their members are living up to pro-family rhetoric.” In doing so, Myers joined other media figures in advancing the myth that social conservatives are more concerned with “values” than other voters.
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Natural Disasters
Media ignored Mississippi’s use of waivers to redirect funds designated for low-income Katrina victims
Despite widespread reporting on the reconstruction in the Gulf Coast, the media have largely ignored reports that Mississippi Republican Gov. Haley Barbour has used waivers to redirect funds designated for low- to moderate-income Katrina victims.
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Media Matters for America summary, August 30, 2007
Here are today’s news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or ‘read more’ to read the entirety of each story.
2008 Elections
The Hill’s Stoddard on Paws’ donations: “[T]his is exactly the kind of thing that could bring [Hillary Clinton] down”
On Tucker, while discussing a Wall Street Journal article that suggested a major donor may have funneled illegal campaign contributions to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, A.B. Stoddard asserted that “this is exactly the kind of thing that could bring her down.” However, as the Journal article itself reported: “[R]egulators and law-enforcement officials said they have seen a spike recently in the number of cases of individuals and companies illegally reimbursing others for campaign donations. Those cases don’t necessarily implicate the candidates, who sometimes don’t even appear to be aware of such payments executed on their behalf.” Read more
Blitzer omitted context of Clinton remarks to ask: “Why not give the military a chance to see if they can finish the job?”
In an interview with Sen. Chuck Schumer, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer omitted the context from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s remarks that “[w]e’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas — particularly in Al Anbar province — it’s working,” to assert that “even some Democrats are now suggesting that maybe the military part of the troop buildup, the so-called surge, is making some progress.” But Clinton was attributing successes in Al Anbar to a change in tactics, not President Bush’s so-called “surge” strategy. Read more
MSNBC’s Hall falsely claimed Clinton and Obama said Iraq surge is “working, so then why not stay longer?”
On MSNBC, anchor Tamron Hall claimed that Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are “both saying that the new strategy” in Iraq “is working,” and later asked VoteVets.org’s Jon Soltz whether it would hurt anti-war organizations’ message “when you hear from … the two leading candidates for president … saying ‘Hey, things are working, so then why not stay longer?’ ” But neither Clinton nor Obama has said that President Bush’s troop increase strategy is “working,” and neither has advocated “stay[ing] longer.”
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Fox graphics falsely asserted Castro “wants” Clinton-Obama as “dream team”
During a Fox & Friends segment discussing an August 28 column by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, on-screen text falsely asserted, “CASTRO’S DREAM TEAM: WANTS CLINTON AND OBAMA IN ‘08,” referring to Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Also during the segment, an on-screen graphic depicted Castro, Clinton, and Obama enclosed in a red heart. In fact, at no point in his column did Castro endorse Clinton or Obama. Indeed, he attributed to Clinton and Obama a pro-democratic view that he called an “error,” and he said of Clinton and Obama, “They are not making politics: they are playing a game of cards on a Sunday afternoon.” Read more
LGBT Issues
Re-airing Abrams/Carlson segment, MSNBC left out part where Carlson admitted assault
On August 29, MSNBC twice re-aired a segment from the August 28 edition of Live with Dan Abrams, in which MSNBC host Tucker Carlson asserted, “Having sex in a public men’s room is outrageous. It’s also really common. I’ve been bothered in men’s rooms.” Carlson continued, “I got bothered in Georgetown Park,” in Washington, D.C., “when I was in high school.” As Media Matters for America noted, when Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being “bothered,” Carlson said: “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the — you know, and grabbed him, and … hit him against the stall with his head, actually.” However, while both August 29 re-airings did include Carlson’s claim that he had been “bothered in men’s rooms,” neither broadcast aired the portion in which Carlson claimed that he “went back with someone” and “hit him against the stall with his head.” Both re-airings did include a portion of the segment in which Carlson asserted, “I’m not anti-gay in the slightest.” Read more
UPDATED: Carlson claimed that after incident in a public bathroom, he assaulted the man who “bothered” him
On the August 28 edition of MSBNC Live, hosted by MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams, Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s Tucker, asserted, “Having sex in a public men’s room is outrageous. It’s also really common. I’ve been bothered in men’s rooms.” Carlson continued, “I’ve been bothered in Georgetown Park,” in Washington, D.C., “when I was in high school.” When Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being “bothered,” Carlson asserted, “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the — you know, and grabbed him, and … hit him against the stall with his head, actually.” Read more
War in Iraq
CNN’s Henry uncritically aired Bush’s claim that “violence has sharply decreased in Baghdad”
In airing President Bush’s assertion that “[s]ectarian violence has sharply decreased in Baghdad. The momentum is now on our side,” CNN’s Ed Henry gave no indication that he attempted to verify Bush’s assertion. By contrast, recent articles by the Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers have challenged claims about decreases in violence in Iraq. Read more
Despite hyping lower July death toll, network evening news programs silent on number of troop deaths this summer
ABC’s World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC’s Nightly News reported that the death toll for U.S. service members in Iraq was down in July. But none of the programs noted at the time that U.S. troop death numbers for July, while lower than previous months, meant that this July was the deadliest July of the war. And none of the programs have reported the fact that the current number of troops killed in Iraq for the months of June, July, and August makes the summer of 2007 the bloodiest summer of the war for American soldiers. Read more
Terrorism
Olbermann named Fox’s Gibson “Worst Person” for claiming Clinton “makes a deal with Al Qaeda”
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann named Fox News host John Gibson the “winner” of his “Worst Person in the World” segment for claiming that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made “a deal with Al Qaeda” to “go easier” on terrorists if elected president.
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Nominations
Sabato, Sanchez dismissed as “politics” likely Dem objections to potential Chertoff nomination
Discussing replacements for outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Larry Sabato asserted that if President Bush nominates Michael Chertoff, “[u]ndoubtedly, the Democrats are going to revisit Katrina. They’re going to use the nomination hearings … to talk about something that happened two years ago in a completely different realm, but that’s politics.” Similarly, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez, apparently referring to a potential Chertoff nomination, stated that the “Democrats have already announced this is going to be another piece of political theater,” adding that they “want to rehash Katrina, different allegations, start more investigations.”
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Propaganda/Noise Machine
NY Times’ Stolberg, MNSBC’s Matthews cited Tony Perkins, GOP conservatives as espousing “ethics” and “values”
New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg repeated a common media practice of suggesting that the GOP’s “social conservative wing” cares more about “ethics and family values” than others, and quoted Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, in support. Similarly, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked Perkins about “conservative people like yourself, who are not politicians, but are men of the church, who believe in values, rather than election results.” Neither noted Perkins’ reported ties to both the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Read more
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