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

Despite public support, NPR's Diane Rehm and Time's Karen Tumulty claimed "backlash" against Edwardses
On the March 30 edition of National Public Radio's The Diane Rehm Show, host Diane Rehm asked Time national political correspondent Karen Tumulty if she was "surprised" by "the sort of backlash" in response to the decision by Elizabeth and former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) to continue his presidential campaign despite the recurrence of her cancer. Tumulty replied, "I am," adding that the supposed reaction was a "reflection of the political climate in which we're living -- everything is deemed fair game." In fact, while several media figures and pundits have criticized the Edwardses' decision, polling indicates that, by at least a 2-to-1 margin, Americans support their decision. Read more

Kurtz cited mostly critics of the Edwardses' decision to stay in presidential race, ignored public support for choice
In his April 2 column, "The Story You Can't and Can Put Down," Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote that the decision by former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and his wife, Elizabeth, to continue his presidential campaign despite the recurrence of Elizabeth's cancer "has touched an exposed nerve" and added that "many journalists are sympathetic" while "others have slammed the candidate." Yet Kurtz went on to cite three examples of journalists and media figures who "have slammed the candidate" and only one who supported the decision, radio shock jock Howard Stern's "sidekick Robin Quivers." Moreover, Kurtz did not mention findings of recent public opinion polls showing that a majority of the public supports the couple's decision to continue the campaign. Read more

Wash. Post's Kurtz: "Nothing the New York senator says or does will ever be as fascinating to journalists as her marital situation"
Discussing coverage of the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) in his April 2 Media Notes column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz asserted, "Nothing the New York senator says or does will ever be as fascinating to journalists as her marital situation." Kurtz gave no indication whether he thinks the public is well served by the media's fixation on Clinton's marriage to former President Bill Clinton. Read more

Time.com's Cox cherry-picked poll results, claimed "voters still choose Republicans every time"
Despite the finding in a March 23-26 Time magazine/SRBI poll that Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) each would handily defeat former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) in a hypothetical general election matchup, Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox wrote in the April 9 edition of Time that "when presented with matchups between the front runners of both parties, voters still choose Republicans every time." According to the Time poll, Clinton beat Romney by 17 percentage points, while Obama beat him by 24. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Beck on being a white Christian who "loves America": "I just can't win"
On the April 2 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck claimed that "[c]onservatives get no respect" and asserted that he "can't win" because he is "American[]," "white," "Christian," and "conservative." He said: "[I]f you are a white human that loves America and happens to be a Christian, forget about it, Jack. You are the only one that doesn't have a political action committee for you." He also said: "I mean, I was talking about it with my family yesterday. I said, 'I'm tired of being the least popular person in the world,' " adding, "We're Americans. Nobody likes Americans. We're Americans, so the world hates us. But then inside of America, we love America -- and that's becoming more and more unpopular." Beck also said that being "Christian[]" is "not popular anymore" and went on to say, "I've got to find one thing that I agree with the rest of the world on, I guess. I'm tired of being in that group." Read more

Media reported White House criticism of Pelosi Syria trip, but not its silence on GOP-led trip
In reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is planning a visit to Syria accompanied by a bipartisan congressional delegation this week, several media outlets highlighted White House criticism of Pelosi's trip but did not note that a Republican-led delegation met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 1 -- nor did they note the White House's inconsistency in criticizing Pelosi for her trip but remaining silent on the GOP-led visit. Read more

UPDATE: CNN's Ware flatly denies report that he "heckled" McCain, but right-wing media flog it anyway
On April 1, Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted an "exclusive" alert on his website, the Drudge Report, claiming that CNN international correspondent Michael Ware, during a press conference in Baghdad, "heckled" Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC). Drudge's only source for this "exclusive" was an anonymous "official at the press conference" who claimed that Ware was "laughing and mocking their comments," adding: "I've never witnessed such disrespect." Ware denied the heckling allegation on the April 2 edition of CNN's American Morning, saying: "I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn't say a word, I didn't even ask a question." The Washington Times uncritically reported Drudge's allegation on April 2 and quoted John Hinderaker of the conservative weblog Power Line, who wrote in an April 1 entry: "Having publicly committed himself to the proposition that everything that happens in Iraq is a disaster, having publicly ridiculed those who pointed to optimistic developments, how can anyone trust that Ware's future reporting is giving us anything like the straight story from Iraq?" Read more

CNN's Malveaux parroted White House criticism of Pelosi's Syria visit, but ignored GOP-led trip
During an interview with former Ambassador John Bolton on the April 2 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, guest host and CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux noted the White House's denunciations of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for her scheduled trip to Syria, but did not note that a Republican-led delegation met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 1. Malveaux also did not point out the White House's inconsistency in criticizing Pelosi for her trip while remaining silent on the GOP-led visit. Nor did Malveaux report in her exchange with Bolton that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly voiced support for Pelosi's trip to Syria, "urg[ing] Pelosi," according to an ABC report on April 2, "to convey the message to Assad that Israel would be willing to hold talks with Syria -- if Syria would take steps to stop supporting terrorism." Read more

Ethics

Time's coverage of U.S. attorney scandal less than one-third that of Newsweek
On the March 25 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Time managing editor Richard Stengel -- despite the many unanswered questions about White House senior adviser Karl Rove's involvement in the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys and possible misrepresentations by administration officials about his role -- criticized members of Congress for seeking public testimony by Rove under oath and with a transcript. Stengel said he was "so uninterested in the Democrats wanting Karl Rove because it is so bad for them, because it shows business as usual, tit for tat, vengeance," adding, "That's not what voters want to see." When confronted later by Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox about his remarks, Stengel claimed in a March 27 email that he had been "caught out speaking as a citizen rather than as editor of Time" and justified his previous comments as follows: "[A]s a citizen, I think it's unfortunate and perhaps short-sighted for Democrats to be perceived as focusing on the past rather than the future. If people see the Democrats as obsessively concerned with settling scores, that's not good for the Democrats or the country." Read more

LGBT Issues

Savage "agree[d] 100 percent" with caller who said that gay rabbis would likely "rap[e] teenage boys"
On the March 30 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage stated that he "agree[d] 100 percent" with a caller who said: "I'm very concerned that the Jews are now accepting gays as rabbis. And as a Catholic, I can tell you it almost destroyed our church when we accepted gays as priests." The caller added, "[T]hey were raping teenage boys, and if you allow them to come into your churches, I'm sorry, your synagogues, I have no reason to believe they're not going to do the same thing." Savage responded: "The idea of a gay rabbi is an oxymoron. Think about it: 'Rabbi' means teacher. You cannot have a homosexual teacher teaching boys how to be a Jew," adding, "I'm not going to mince words for fear of offending homosexuals. They're everywhere, anyway, trying to tell me what to say and what not to say and what to think. I know what's right and what's wrong. And that's all there is to it." Read more

War in Iraq

MSBNC on-screen text touted McCain's claim that Baghdad is safer, even as NBC reporter rebutted it
On the April 2 edition of MSNBC News Live, on-screen text highlighted Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) recent assertions that the security situation in Iraq is improving, while NBC News correspondent Tom Aspell simultaneously rejected McCain's rosy assessment. The on-screen text read: "Sen. John McCain: Baghdad crackdown is working," and, "Sen John McCain says there are reasons for 'cautious optimism.' " But as these captions flashed across the screen, Aspell reported on the increasing Iraqi civilian casualties and said of McCain: "It's hard to see where he's getting his information from." Read more

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