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

O'Reilly claimed WI paper tried to "hurt" Thompson for his "compliment" to Jewish audience
During an April 18 interview on his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly asked former Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson about an April 17 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial condemning remarks Thompson made during an April 16 speech, in which he said "earning money" is "sort of part of the Jewish tradition." O'Reilly asked: "Why would the Milwaukee paper take a shot at you like this?" Thompson claimed in response: "[T]he Milwaukee paper has never supported me in anything ... and I feel bad." On the April 18 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly again brought up the Journal Sentinel editorial. He suggested that they were "try[ing] to hurt the governor" and repeated Thompson's claim regarding the newspaper: "I know they don't like him. The Milwaukee paper is liberal, and the governor is a moderate." Read more

NY Times again ignored Giuliani's shifting position on abortion ban
In an April 19 New York Times article on the political impact of the Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, staff writer Robin Toner reported that Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani "said the court 'reached the correct conclusion.' " But while the article noted that Giuliani is "a longtime supporter of abortion rights," it did not mention that, in 2000 when running for a Senate seat from New York, Giuliani agreed with President Clinton's veto of similar legislation, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1997, saying that had he been in the Senate when it was considering the bill, he would have "vote[d] to preserve the option for women." By contrast, in related April 19 articles, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Newsday all noted the apparent contradiction in Giuliani's statements. Read more

Gun Control/Second Amendment

Fox's Angle falsely suggested Kaine condemned Moran's comments on gun control
On the April 18 edition of Fox News' Special Report, during a report on the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, Fox News chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle falsely suggested that, in the wake of the shooting, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) specifically criticized "activists" and "politicians," who "rush forward to say there should be some new effort at gun control," citing Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) in particular, as one of those "politicians," who "did that." Angle asserted that "Democratic governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, said this is not the time to raise the issue of gun control" and aired a clip of Kaine saying: "People who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it, you know, their political hobby horse to ride, I've got nothing but loathing for them." Angle presented Kaine's quote as a response to Moran, who, in a clip aired by Fox News, said on the floor of the House, "The proliferation of handguns -- the kinds of guns that were used in this tragic incidence -- that has to be brought under control." In fact, Kaine was not responding to Moran or even addressing gun control advocates in general. Rather, he was answering a reporter, during an April 17 press conference in Blacksburg, Virginia -- before Moran made the statement Fox aired -- who appeared to be asking about the argument by "pro-gun lobbyists" that Virginia Tech students should be allowed to carry guns. Read more

On MSNBC, Michael Graham joined blame-the-victims chorus: A "story of people just freezing"
On the April 19 edition of MSNBC Live, Boston radio host Michael Graham told NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory that "the entire story" of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech "is a story of people just freezing, of just letting him [the gunman] have their way, except for that one brave professor who put himself in between the gunman and his students." Graham stated: Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Limbaugh said Virginia Tech shooter "had to be a liberal"
On the April 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh declared that the perpetrator of the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings "had to be a liberal," adding: "You start railing against the rich, and all this other -- this guy's a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it's a liberal that committed this act." Limbaugh then complained, in a possible reference to Media Matters for America, that "Now the drive-bys will read on a website that I'm attacking liberalism by comparing this guy to them. That's exactly what they do every day, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just pointing out a fact. I am making no extrapolation." Limbaugh regularly describes mainstream media sources as "the drive-by media." Read more

Schlussel responds to Media Matters, Olbermann: Vegans, transsexuals, and "fake Holocaust survivors," oh my
In an April 18 weblog entry, right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel responded to a Media Matters for America item that highlighted her "speculat[ion]" in an April 16 post (since removed) that Cho Seung-Hui, identified as the Virginia Tech gunman, might have been a "Paki" Muslim and part of "a coordinated terrorist attack." As Media Matters pointed out, "Paki" is a disparaging term for a person of Pakistani descent. Schlussel attacked Media Matters, writing: "Media Matters bragged to the Wall Street Journal that it was responsible for taking down Don Imus. I suppose now that Don Imus is gone, they've assigned the vegan lesbian transsexual 'interspecies erotica' devotee they had monitoring the Imus show to monitor my site." She also attacked "nutty, angry" MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who awarded Schlussel third place in his April 17 "Worst Person in the World" segment for her "Paki" statement. In addition, Schlussel falsely claimed that billionaire philanthropist George Soros "is the funder of Media Matters." Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

Limbaugh compared Sharpton's NAN to "David Duke's ... whatever organization"
On the April 18 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh suggested that the attendance of Democratic presidential candidates at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network convention is "similar" to Republican presidential candidates' attending a hypothetical convention of "The Rev. David Duke's -- whatever, whatever organization." Read more

Budget

Citing Bush attack on Dems, MSNBC's Kelly O'Donnell did not mention pork in prior GOP war funding bills
In an April 19 report on MSNBC Live regarding a meeting the previous day between congressional leaders and President Bush to discuss an emergency war supplemental spending bill, NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell uncritically reported, "He [Bush] wants what they [the White House] term a 'clean bill,' meaning no timetables, and no extra spending for things that don't deal with the war." During an April 3 press conference, Bush called for a "clean bill that funds our troops on the front lines." However, O'Donnell made no mention of the fact that, as Media Matters for America has noted, every previous supplemental war funding bill contained money for unrelated projects. Indeed, in previous years, the Republican-led Congress, in some cases acting at the behest of the White House, added funding for "pet spending projects," as an April 4 Washington Post article reported: Read more

Government and Elections

ABCNews.com, Hume join in the Edwards "Coif Controversy"
An April 18 entry on ABCNews.com's Political Radar weblog, titled "Edwards Flattens Coif Controversy," noted that a "report filed with the Federal Election Commission last weekend revealed that former Sen. John Edwards' D-N.C., presidential campaign twice shelled out $400 for haircuts he received from a Beverly Hills salon," adding, "ABC News has learned the money will be returned." The blog post went on to say that the "hair cut revelation did little to minimize what some call Edwards' 'Breck Girl' image." Read more

War in Iraq

Fox's Goler seemed to forget that troop tours are already extended -- and not by Congress
On the April 18 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, during a report of the standoff between congressional Democrats and President Bush over supplemental funding for the Iraq war, Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler uncritically reported that Bush recently "warned [that] the delay in approving the funding risks keeping troops longer in the field." In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, not only has the administration already forced extended tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced on April 11 that, effective immediately, the tours of duty for all Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan will be extended by three months. Read more

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