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

Was NY Times report that Scaife would lay off Clintons premature?
Following a New York Times report that conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife will not fund attacks on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), an April 15 column in the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review compared Clinton to Lady Macbeth and three of her supporters, Geraldine Ferraro, Madeleine Albright, and Billie Jean King, to the "three hags -- witches" in Shakespeare's Macbeth who, according to the column, "aided" Lady Macbeth. The column added that Ferraro, Albright, and King "bring together 200 years of mostly bitter experience to Hillary's presumed need for champions." The author of the column is not identified beyond "a Washington-based British journalist and political observer." Read more

AJC's Tucker called McCain "a real libertarian"; Matthews said he "deserves to be president"
On the April 15 broadcast of NBC-syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is "a real libertarian." Tucker also said that McCain is "an Arizona conservative, not an Alabama conservative," presumably a reference to the late Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). In the same broadcast, host Chris Matthews continued to praise McCain and repeated his claim that McCain "deserves to be president." He also supported Tucker's assertion that McCain is "a real libertarian." However, both Tucker and Matthews ignored McCain's positions on gay rights and abortion, both of which have conflicted with the principles of libertarianism in the past, as Media Matters for America has documented. Read more

Kondracke on whether "political hero" McCain's war stance will "help" his campaign: "Boy, I hope so"
On the April 14 edition of Fox News' The Beltway Boys, co-host and Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke proclaimed that "John McCain was a war hero, and he's my idea of a political hero," explaining that McCain said in his April 11 speech to the Virginia Military Institute "that he'd rather lose a campaign than lose a war." Kondracke added: "And he said, 'If you think that the enemy wouldn't kill American kids, you're crazy.' And, you know -- and that is the lesson that Americans ought to take. They are going to come after us wherever we are, and they'll kill our kids as well." When asked by co-host and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes, "Is this going to help the McCain campaign?" Kondracke responded: "Boy, I hope so." Read more

More spinonymous sourcing: Politico quoted GOP strategist "who declined to be named" attacking Obama
An April 13 Politico article by reporter Kenneth P. Vogel on German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth's attendance at an April 11 fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) quoted a "Republican strategist working on the 2008 presidential race" saying it was "a glaring sign of inexperience that [Obama] would showcase support from a foreign diplomat." According to Vogel, the strategist "declined to be named out of concern for the campaign." At no point did Vogel explain which campaign the Republican strategist was "concerned" about, or even what the anonymous strategist's "concern" was. Rather, Vogel simply allowed a Republican operative to attack a political opponent from behind the shield of anonymity. Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

Limbaugh lashes out at Media Matters
On the April 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called Media Matters for America "Stalinist" and part of the "Clinton machine agenda." He further falsely asserted that Media Matters receives funding from philanthropist George Soros and that he is "not demeaning people on this program in any way." Read more

Media figures continue to describe Imus firing as "lynching"
Discussing the firing of syndicated radio host Don Imus on the April 15 edition of the syndicated program The McLaughlin Group, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan asserted: "Imus said a stupid thing, he and [former executive producer Bernard McGuirk] did, two words for about three, four seconds in the morning. They apologized and apologized and apologized and asked for forgiveness, and two Christian ministers, [Revs. Al] Sharpton and [Jesse] Jackson, acted like lynch-mob leaders." In reference to Imus' calling the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," Buchanan later claimed: "Imus was lynched because he was a white male who said it." Read more

Gun Control/Second Amendment

Echoing Malkin's blog, Gibson and Napolitano lamented VA Tech ban on handguns
In the wake of a deadly shooting rampage that killed over 30 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University, host John Gibson asked on the April 16 edition of Fox News' The Big Story: "So, theoretically, in this lecture hall where all 31 were killed, there could have been someone with a carry permit carrying their gun to shoot the shooter?" Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano replied: "No," adding, "Virginia lets you carry a gun at a gas station or a bank or a stadium, but not on a college campus, where you may protect kids." Read more

Ethics

NY Times left out reported contradiction by former DOJ official of key Gonzales assertion
An April 16 New York Times article headlined " 'Nothing to Hide,' Gonzales Insists Before Hearing," which previewed Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' upcoming testimony before Congress on the scandal involving the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, reported that Gonzales would claim "he had 'nothing to hide' and that none of the prosecutors were removed to influence the outcome of a case," but did not report that a former Justice Department official involved with the firings has reportedly made statements undermining a key assertion Gonzales has made. The article noted that Gonzales "is certain to be asked on Tuesday about his own recollection of events" and that "Michael A. Battle, the former director of the department's United States attorney liaison office," has apparently contradicted Gonzales' claim that he "was not involved in seeing any memos," and "was not involved in any discussions about" the dismissals. However, according to Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Battle -- the official who informed the U.S. attorneys that they were to be fired -- told the committee that shortly before the firings, he was unaware of "performance problems" with all but one of the fired U.S. attorneys, even though Gonzales has claimed that the prosecutors were dismissed for performance reasons. By contrast, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Associated Press all reported Schumer's statements about Battle. Read more

This mail was sent by Media Matters for America to 'news@energy-net.org'. Please visit us at http://mediamatters.org

You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.

To change your email subscription preferences, visit http://mediamatters.org/users/prefs.html

If you'd like to unsubscribe from all Media Matters for America emails, you can just click on http://mediamatters.org/users/unsub/_TFiSm6WIkiaci7iLu6ZtH8gu6JaPh8t_vLvpt4dfhY.

To contact us directly, reply to this mail or visit http://mediamatters.org/contact_us