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

MSNBC Democratic debate coverage rife with sexist stereotypes
Sexist references abounded during MSNBC's April 26 coverage of the first Democratic presidential candidates debate in the context of discussions about the only female candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY). MSNBC host Chris Matthews focused obsessively on the appearances of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) wife, Michelle, to the point that NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell reminded him that they are Yale and Harvard-educated lawyers, respectively. MSNBC host Tucker Carlson asked a Clinton campaign spokesman whether Clinton had an "unfair advantage because of her sex." Read more

AP uncritically reported McCain claim that terrorists "will follow us home" from Iraq -- experts disagree
An April 26 Associated Press article uncritically reported Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) assertion that if the United States withdraws its troops from Iraq, "terrorists 'will follow us home.' " Experts, however, reportedly disagree with that assertion: According to an April 6 McClatchy Newspapers article, "Military and diplomatic analysts" say that a similar claim repeatedly made by President Bush -- that "this is a war in which, if we were to leave before the job is done, the enemy would follow us here" -- "exaggerate[s] the threat that the enemy forces in Iraq pose to the U.S. mainland." Read more

ABC offered no evidence in suggesting Democrats engaging in corrupt practices they denounced
In an April 25 ABC News report titled "Politics As Usual; Democrats Just Like the Republicans," chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross reported that, although Democrats "criticiz[ed] the Republicans for turning Congress in to what [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] called an auction house for sale to the highest bidder" while in the minority, they are now "taking full advantage of the system that they called pay for play" in their fundraising from lobbyists and others. However, Pelosi's statement did not declare that Democrats would not do any fundraising if they became the majority party, and Ross, while discussing several fundraising events, provided no evidence that any of those events involved legal or ethical wrongdoing. By contrast, three Republican congressmen -- former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Bob Ney (R-OH), and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) -- have been indicted, and two -- Ney and Cunningham -- pleaded guilty to offenses during the 109th Congress. The report aired on the webcast of ABC's World News. Read more

Politico's Allen did not challenge McCain's claim on Gonzales resignation that "I just haven't been asked"
In an April 25 Politico article, chief political correspondent Mike Allen uncritically reported Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) statement that he decided "a long time ago" that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales should step down but said nothing because "I just haven't been asked" about it. In fact, a March 16 New York Times article reported that McCain "declined to say ... whether he thought Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales should be ousted," as Media Matters for America noted. Moreover, three additional reports from late March and mid April mentioned the senator's reluctance to comment on whether Gonzales should remain in office. Read more

NY Post's Galen misrepresented Clinton, Obama debate responses on terrorism
In an April 27 New York Post article on the previous day's Democratic presidential candidates debate, Republican strategist Rich Galen, who served as communications director for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), falsely suggested that, in contrast with Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) did not mention using military force when asked "how [each would] change the U.S. military stance overseas" in the event of an Al Qaeda attack in the United States. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

O'Reilly falsely accused Media Matters of lying about Soros funding
On the April 26 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly attacked Media Matters for America, saying that "the vile Media Matters outfit is denying receiving funding from any of [progressive financier] George Soros' outfits," and claiming, "Well, that is a total lie." As evidence, O'Reilly noted that the Tides Foundation donated over $1 million to Media Matters in 2005, "[a]nd just by coincidence Soros' Open Society Institute [OSI] donated more than a million dollars to Tides in 2005." He added: "Figure it out." But O'Reilly's conclusion that Soros donated $1 million to Media Matters through the Tides Foundation is false. OSI's donations to Tides were earmarked for several specific programs, and Media Matters was not included on this list. Read more

Boortz continued to attack "Media Myrmidons"
On the April 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz complained that Media Matters for America -- which he referred to as "Media Myrmidons" -- had "picked up on" an April 20 New York Times article which reported that he aired an instrumental of the Pat Benatar song 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' on his April 18 program while discussing the April 16 shooting at Virginia Tech. Boortz claimed that the song "was not chosen by me ... It was chosen by a computer," and said of Media Matters: "Let's see if they correct this one." In fact, in the March 20 item to which Boortz referred, all Media Matters "picked up on" was Boortz's false assertion on the April 20 broadcast of his show that Media Matters had been the source of the Times' claim regarding the Benatar song. Indeed, the item simply noted that Media Matters did not document Boortz's comments -- or the music that was aired -- on the April 18 broadcast of The Neal Boortz Show. Moreover, the item noted Boortz's claim that the music for each segment is "completely and totally random" and selected by a "computer." Read more

Limbaugh on Media Matters: "[Y]ou're going to have to learn not to be baited when I'm baiting you"
On the April 25 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh again claimed that the "Media Matters people fell for it, and the drive-by media fell for it, and this is a perfect illustration of what I was talking about on that day," referring to his recent statement that Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech gunman, "had to be a liberal." Media Matters documented both Limbaugh's April 19 statement that Cho "had to be a liberal" and his subsequent observation that "[n]ow the drive-bys will read on a website that I'm attacking liberalism by comparing this guy to them" (Limbaugh regularly refers to mainstream media outlets as "the drive-by media"). On April 23, Limbaugh similarly claimed that "Media Matters fell for it hook, line, and sinker. They had it up all over the place," adding: "I was making a joke. ... Although I do believe that it was liberalism that got a hold of this guy and made him hate things, professors and this sort of thing." Read more

War in Iraq

O'Reilly falsely claimed he "went on facts and facts alone" in his statements supporting Iraq war
On the April 24 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly denied the assertion by 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, that prior to, and during, "the first year or even two after the [Iraq] war got started, Fox and many other people associated with Fox ... said all kinds of things in support of the war, which were not being borne out by the facts." O'Reilly replied: "No, I didn't. I went on facts and facts alone." In fact, in the lead-up to, and following, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, O'Reilly made several false claims and misleading suggestions regarding the threat posed by Iraq. Notably, O'Reilly repeatedly suggested a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, despite numerous reports undermining this claim. Read more

NY Times largely mum on Moyers special about media's role in spreading prewar falsehoods
On the April 25 edition of the Public Broadcasting Service's Bill Moyers Journal, host Bill Moyers presented a 90-minute-long documentary special, Buying the War," that examined how the media "largely surrendered its independence and skepticism to join with our government in marching to war" in Iraq. The film extensively reported on the role New York Times reporters and columnists played in contributing to the "drumbeat" of war. However, the documentary has not been either reviewed or mentioned in the Times itself, aside from a two-sentence blurb that appeared in the print newspaper's television listings. Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

Imus in the Morning's McGuirk: First they came for me ...
On the April 26 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Bernard McGuirk, who was fired by CBS Radio for, according to MSNBC, "his role in the ugly incident" involving Don Imus, asserted, "it's like the oft-quoted anti-Nazi German pastor who said, you know, first, they came for the Communists, but I wasn't a Communist, so I didn't say anything. Then they came for the Jews, but I'm not a Jew, I didn't say anything. Then they came for the Catholics, but I'm a Protestant. Then when they came for me, there was nobody to speak." McGuirk was responding to a question from co-host Alan Colmes, who asked, "And now you've got JV and Elvis, also CBS properties, who are suspended because of a bit that they did. I wonder if you're closely following that and if you have strong feelings about what should happen in that situation." Read more

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