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

Carlson falsely claimed Clinton is lone supporter of keeping residual force in Iraq
On the April 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson -- after asking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson whether Clinton had an "unfair advantage" in that day's Democratic presidential candidates debate "because of her sex" -- falsely claimed that, unlike Clinton, "none of the other candidates," except for "possibly [Sen.] Joe Biden [D-DE]," support keeping "ground troops in Iraq to safeguard our strategic interests in the region." As Wolfson pointed out, Clinton's support for keeping a limited number of troops in Iraq after a substantial withdrawal is similar to the provision outlined in the Democratic conference report on the Iraq war spending bill, which was passed by the Senate on April 26 with support from Clinton's fellow presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), Biden, and Christopher Dodd (D-CT). Read more

Sun-Times: Clinton "stole a page from Obama's book, segueing into anecdotes from her life"
An April 29 Chicago Sun-Times article on a news conference Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) held during the April 28-29 California Democratic Party convention bore the headline: "Clinton draws on Park Ridge lesson," with the subhead reading: "She cribs from [Sen. Barack] Obama [D-IL] by telling personal story of baby-sitting migrant workers' kids, calls for 'path of legalization.' " The article went on to report: "Clinton stole a page from Obama's book, segueing into anecdotes from her life." The Sun-Times, however, offered no explanation for its suggestion that the use of personal anecdotes in campaign rhetoric is somehow unique to Obama, and that Clinton was co-opting this tactic. Read more

Broder pronounced McCain's return to "candor," despite reported efforts to pander to GOP base on former pet issues
In his April 27 nationally syndicated column, headlined "Straight Talking Again," Washington Post columnist David Broder wrote that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is "risking the ire of Bush fans" by "running as the anti-Bush" and concluded that, for McCain, "there must be at least some relief now in being able to speak his own mind -- whatever the consequences. Candor, even belatedly, becomes him." But elsewhere in the column, Broder acknowledged to some extent the seemingly contradictory fact that McCain has backed off certain issues because his prior positions were unpopular with the Republican base. Indeed, Broder noted that McCain "gives no emphasis to the campaign finance reforms that were central to his 2000 message, knowing that they are not popular with Republican power brokers." Broder further wrote that during McCain's official announcement that he is running for president, McCain "was notably silent on immigration reform, another issue on which he has found himself at odds with many of his fellow Republicans." Read more

LA Times suggested opposing Iraq war and being tough on terrorism are contradictory
In an April 27 Los Angeles Times article on the Democratic presidential candidates debate, staff writers Peter Wallsten and Mark Z. Barabak wrote, "Even as they roundly attacked President Bush's policies on Iraq, the leading Democratic candidates for president sought to burnish their credentials Thursday as tough leaders who would defeat terrorists." They also asserted that the Democrats face a "challenge" because they "must woo antiwar primary election voters while fending off Republican attempts to paint them as weak on defense." Wallsten and Barabak did not explain the contradiction they purported to identify between criticizing the Bush administration's initiation and execution of the Iraq war and presenting oneself as a "tough leader[] who would defeat terrorists" and is not "weak on defense." Read more

Wash. Post's Kornblut repeated notion of "Clinton fatigue," provided no evidence
In an April 30, front-page Washington Post profile of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) pollster and campaign consultant Mark Penn, Post staff writer Anne E. Kornblut claimed: "While not her [Clinton's] campaign manager in name, Penn controls the main elements of her campaign, most important her attempt to define herself to an electorate seemingly ready for a Democratic president but possibly still suffering from Clinton fatigue." However, Kornblut did not provide any evidence that American voters "suffer[] from Clinton fatigue," either in the past or currently, beyond recounting an anecdote in which former Vice President Al Gore was said to have questioned Penn about "Clinton fatigue" during his 2000 presidential run. Read more

Ignoring McCain's "greeted as liberators" assurance, Wash. Post editorial credited him with prewar "foresight"
A Washington Post editorial praised Sen. John McCain's "foresight and consistency about how the [Iraq] war should have been waged"; however, in the days immediately before and after the invasion, McCain echoed Bush administration statements that U.S. forces would be greeted as "liberators." Since then, McCain has made apparently contradictory statements on the administration's management of the Iraq war. Read more

War in Iraq

Scripps article uncritically reported that RNSC attack ad contains quotes from U.S. troops
In an April 26 article, Scripps News Service reported that Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) would not criticize the recent assertion by his state's Democratic colleague, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, that the Iraq war "is lost," which Reid followed up by stating that the war "can only be won diplomatically, politically, and economically." The article noted that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Ensign heads, recently released an "Internet advertisement that used Reid's words to campaign against Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2008." Scripps asserted that the ad features "written comments from U.S. troops" and then uncritically reported the claim by an NRSC spokeswoman that the comments were taken from letters "sent to a blogger who asked troops to write in to tell the majority leader how they felt about his comment." Yet the article did not mention that the "blogger" the NRSC spokeswoman referred to is right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin or that two of the five quotes used in the ad came from letters sent to Malkin signed by one person who included only a first name and another who used only initials. The other two identified themselves as "LT Jason Nichols, USN" (who was quoted twice in the ad) and "SPC Matthew S Gangwer." Read more

After attacking Reid over war "is lost" comment, Broder "doubtful" Iraq victory is possible
On the April 30 edition of XM Radio's The Bob Edwards Show, Washington Post columnist David Broder asserted that it was "really doubtful" President Bush would be able "to salvage something that would look like a victory in Iraq." Broder made this statement four days after he attacked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for what he called Reid's "ineptitude," because of, as he wrote in his April 26 Post column, Reid's assertion that the Iraq war "is lost." As Media Matters for America noted, in that column, Broder pointed to Reid's "war is lost" remark to compare him to embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and accuse him of engaging in "inept discussion[s] of the alternatives in Iraq" and of not being "a man who misses many opportunities to put his foot in his mouth." Further, after discussing Democratic strategist Paul Begala's recent column on The Huffington Post, in which he wrote that "Broder, of course, is a gasbag," host Bob Edwards noted, "[W]e're in the world of the blogs and this stuff spreads so fast." Broder responded: "I am not a fan of the blogs, and the blogs are not fans of mine." Read more

Olbermann awarded Gibson "Worst Person" bronze for calling Iraqis "knuckle-dragging savages"
On the April 27 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded Fox News host John Gibson "the bronze" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for describing the Iraqis as "knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century" and arguing that they are at "fault" for the situation in Iraq, as Media Matters for America documented. Olbermann quoted Gibson saying on the April 23 broadcast of his Fox News Radio show: "We invaded the place, we knocked over Saddam, and then Iraqis began killing each other. ... [B]ut who is doing this killing? Give me a break. These are Iraqis killing each other. So what did we do? If you're saying it's our fault that we unmasked them as knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century -- fine! I'll take credit." Read more

GMA's Cuomo let Snow claim unchallenged that "there's been no attempt to try to link Saddam Hussein to September 11"
On the April 30 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, co-anchor Chris Cuomo did not challenge White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's claim that "there's been no attempt to try to link Saddam Hussein to September 11." As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted (here, here, and here), President Bush and other administration officials have frequently claimed a connection between Saddam and the September 11 attacks, including the specific assertion of such a link in a letter to Congress at the start of the war. Read more

Once again, Wash. Times quoted GOP talking points to smear Pelosi
A Washington Times article reported that Nancy Pelosi "did not attend the briefing" that Gen. David Petraeus delivered on Capitol Hill but did not note that Pelosi's staff reportedly said that the speaker had "requested a one-on-one meeting with Petraeus but that could not be worked out," and that Pelosi and Petraeus had spoken on the phone for 30 minutes. Read more

Other Judicial Nominations

Wash. Post's Weisman falsely claimed Senate Judiciary Committee "has shown no interest in" judicial nominations
During an April 27 online discussion on washingtonpost.com, when asked whether "the Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding any hearings/votes on judicial nominees," Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman responded: "No, that process has pretty much stopped in its tracks. The president may continue to do the nominations, mostly as a statement that he still is relevant, but the committee has shown no interest in the issue." In fact, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported on the nominations of two judicial nominees on April 25 and held hearings on four judicial nominations on April 11. Also, since the Democrats assumed control of the Senate, 16 of President Bush's judicial nominees have been confirmed. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Discussing Tenet book, Kurtz referred to "a bunch of journalists of questionable patriotism"
Note to readers: Several readers have posted comments below saying that in this item, Media Matters has misinterpreted Howard Kurtz's "questionable patriotism" and "liberal media" comments. They write that it is apparent that Kurtz was purporting to represent the Bush administration's view of the press, not his own. Read more

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