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.

Race/Affirmative Action

On Fox News, Kalb called for Imus to resign
On the April 9 edition of Fox News' The Live Desk, discussing radio host Don Imus' April 4 comments on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning -- in which Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" -- Marvin Kalb, lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a senior fellow at the school's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, noted Imus' charity work and said Imus could make "an even larger statement about himself, his own value system, if he simply resigned." Kalb added that Imus' resignation would "make a statement to the entire industry that there are limits to what ought to be said, ought to be tolerated." Read more

Sharpton: "[W]e want [Imus] fired"
On the April 9 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Rev. Al Sharpton said about radio host Don Imus: "[W]e want him fired." Sharpton added: "[I]f there's no punishment, what message are we sending to the country?" Sharpton and host Wolf Blitzer were discussing Imus' April 4 comments on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, in which Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Imus had appeared on the April 9 broadcast of Sharpton's radio program, The Al Sharpton Show. Read more

NBC, CBS Radio suspend Imus simulcast for two weeks
In the wake of comments host Don Imus made on the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning -- in which Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" -- NBC News announced that "[b]eginning Monday, April 16, MSNBC will suspend simulcasting the syndicated 'Imus in the Morning' radio program for two weeks," according to a statement posted on the NBC Universal Media Village website. Additionally, CBS Radio announced it will suspend Imus for the same two-week period, according to an April 9 Associated Press report. That report asserted that CBS made the suspension "without comment." Read more

Tom Oliphant to Imus on racial slur controversy: "Solidarity forever, pal"
Referring to host Don Imus' April 4 comments on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning -- in which the radio host referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" -- and the controversy that ensued, Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant began his appearance on the April 9 edition of Imus in the Morning by stating: "Good morning, Mr. Imus, and solidarity forever, by the way." Oliphant also referred to political pundits like himself who appear on the show as Imus' "constituency." Read more

Fineman to pal Imus: Racist comments aren't OK any more like they used to be
Discussing host Don Imus' April 4 comments on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning -- in which Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos" -- and the controversy that ensued, Newsweek editor Howard Fineman, appearing on the April 9 edition of Imus in the Morning, asserted: "[I]t's a different time, Imus ... it's different than it was even a few years ago, politically," and added that "some of the stuff that you used to do, you probably can't do anymore." Fineman continued, "I mean, just looking specifically at the African-American situation. I mean, hello, [Sen.] Barack Obama's [D-IL] got twice the number of contributors as anybody else in the race," and added, "[T]hings have changed. And the kind of -- some of the kind of humor that you used to do you can't do anymore. And that's just the way it is." Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

CNN's Roberts, The Hill's Stoddard uncritically repeated claim that Pelosi "fumbled" Israel's message to Syria
In discussing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) recent trip to Syria on the April 8 edition of CNN's This Week at War, host John Roberts uncritically repeated the accusation that Pelosi "may have fumbled a message that she was bringing from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about opening up another dialogue for peace in the Middle East." A.B. Stoddard, associate editor of The Hill, claimed: "Because [Israel] sort of rejected her declaration, it really kind of validates what the administration is saying, which is that, you know, 'You're not secretary of state. It's not your role to come in and make these declarations, especially when they turn out not to be true.' " Roberts' and Stoddard's suggestion that Pelosi misrepresented Israel's position echoed that of an April 5 Washington Post editorial, which was rebutted by the Post's reporting and Pelosi's office, as Media Matters for America has noted. Neither Roberts nor Stoddard acknowledged this fact, though Roberts' other guest, Politico chief political correspondent Mike Allen, later noted: "[W]hat the speaker's office says is that the message she gave to Syria did include the tough conditions about engaging with Israel, but that got lost in the translation." Read more

NBC's Todd faulted Democrats for not anticipating "conservative media machine's" falsehoods
On the April 8 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press, NBC News political director Chuck Todd observed that Republican and conservative attacks against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for her recent trip to Syria marked "the second time that they've been able to get the sort of conservative media machine going." The first time, according to Todd, was "the plane incident with Pelosi" -- a reference to discredited accusations by Republicans and conservatives that Pelosi requested a luxurious military aircraft to travel between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. At no point, however, did Todd acknowledge that it is not just the "conservative media machine" attacking Pelosi -- false and misleading conservative attacks on Pelosi have been embraced and repeated uncritically by mainstream media outlets, including NBC and MSNBC. Read more

The Hill, ABC uncritically reported Gingrich's criticism of Pelosi's Syria visit
The Hill and ABC's World News Sunday reported Newt Gingrich's statement that Nancy Pelosi's recent trip to Syria was "very dangerous for America" because it left the impression that the government has "two foreign policies." However, neither outlet noted that during a 1997 visit, Gingrich made remarks to Chinese leaders that deviated from U.S. policy, or that in 1998, Gingrich said of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: "I think it's wrong for the American secretary of state to become the agent for the Palestinians." Read more

Polling

Despite polling to the contrary, NBC's Gregory asserted that "Bush's strength" on foreign policy, terrorism helps GOP candidates
On the April 8 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert compared the results of a March 29-April 1 Diageo/Hotline poll that asked respondents to pick between a "generic" Democrat and a "generic" Republican in the 2008 presidential election, with the results of a March 27-28 Fox News poll that offered respondents specific 2008 matchups between candidates from both parties. Russert noted that while Democrats led by a substantial margin in the Diageo/Hotline poll, the Fox News survey showed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) trailing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) in individual matchups. NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory responded that this difference was partly due to "a carryover of Bush's strength in the Bush years, which is management of foreign policy and management of the war on terror." But Gregory's suggestion -- that GOP candidates are benefiting from public support for President Bush's handling of "foreign policy" and "the war on terror" -- is contradicted by recent polls showing that a plurality of Americans disapprove of Bush's performance in these areas. For instance, a March 28-29 Newsweek poll found 45 percent of respondents approved of "the way Bush is handling terrorism and homeland security," while 49 percent disapproved. In the same poll, 28 percent approved of "the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq," while 65 percent disapproved. Similarly, in a March 23-25 USA Today/Gallup poll, the approval-disapproval numbers were 45 percent-50 percent on "terrorism," 33 percent-63 percent on "foreign affairs," and 28 percent-69 percent on "[t]he situation in Iraq." Read more

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