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

On Fox News, Dick Morris misrepresented NY Times article on Giuliani's 9-11 response
On the May 14 broadcast of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, syndicated columnist Dick Morris asserted that there is "a concerted effort by the liberal media and the Democratic establishment to derail [former New York City mayor] Rudy Giuliani as a potential Republican [presidential] candidate." As evidence, Morris cited a May 14 New York Times article that he characterized as "ridiculous," because, he said, the article "sa[id] that Rudy's legacy will be hurt because he made rescue workers breathe the foul air -- like he didn't breathe it himself. Like we should have waited a year-and-a-half ... before we dug up the body parts so that people ... would be fine. Like that wasn't a casualty of terrorism." In fact, the Times did not claim that Giuliani "made" rescue workers breathe toxic air; rather, the article reported that the city "never meaningfully enforced federal requirements that those at [Ground Zero] wear respirators." Read more

Apparently ignoring polls, Blitzer asked: Are ads a sign Clinton camp "is feeling desperate"?
On the May 14 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked whether former President Bill Clinton's recent campaign advertisement on behalf of his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), is "the act of a supportive husband or a sign the Clinton campaign is feeling desperate." Blitzer offered no basis for his suggestion that the Clinton campaign may be "feeling desperate" and did not mention a recent Newsweek poll that shows Sen. Clinton ahead of all the other leading presidential candidates in head-to-head races (though within the margin-of-error in some matchups). Read more

Newsweek, Kurtz uncritically repeated false fuel efficiency accusation against Obama
In a recent column, Newsweek's Keith Naughton stated as fact that Sen. Barack Obama's "assertion that Japanese cars average 45mpg, when the actual mileage is closer [to] 30mpg" was a "factual gaffe," echoing the Chicago Tribune's Jim Mateja. Likewise, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz uncritically reprinted part of a Power Line post that highlighted Mateja's claim. However, a report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change stated that the 2002 average fleet fuel economy value in Japan was 46.3 miles per gallon when converted to the U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

O'Reilly still touting Factor producer's uninformed analysis of IU study
On the May 14 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly again criticized the Los Angeles Times for not publishing Factor producer Ron Mitchell's op-ed in the print edition of the newspaper. O'Reilly asserted that Times columnist Rosa Brooks "used a bogus Indiana University study to attack me" and claimed that Mitchell's op-ed refuted the study, which found that O'Reilly engages in name-calling during the "Talking Points Memo" segment of his show every 6.8 seconds. As Media Matters for America documented, however, Mitchell misrepresented the study's methodology, falsely claiming that researchers adjusted it until a desired result was produced. Read more

Savage compared Rep. Wexler to Nazis over questioning of Gonzales during hearing
On the May 11 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage denounced Rep. Robert Wexler's (D-FL) questioning of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales during a May 10 congressional hearing about the firing of nine federal prosecutors, saying, "The last time I saw a politician scream at someone like that was in Nazi Germany in the kangaroo court trial against people who conspired to kill Hitler." Describing Wexler as a "schmuck" and a "moron," Savage went on to say the congressman "has more hatred for Gonzales than he does for Osama bin Laden and the Islamists." Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

CNN allowed Beck to decry "leftist witch hunt" against shock radio, didn't mention his own hate speech
CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck appeared on the May 14 edition of CNN's American Morning to discuss the dismissal of radio host Don Imus and New York shock jocks JV and Elvis and claimed that there is a "leftist witch hunt" against shock jocks. But in discussing the issue with Beck, host Kiran Chetry introduced Beck simply as a "syndicated talk show host," and not as the host of a nightly program on CNN Headline News. Chetry also ignored Beck's own history of inflammatory remarks -- including a remark he made on the May 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show: "I wouldn't vote for Joe Lieberman at this time because of the complications it would add in this country or on the planet right now because of the way the Middle East would use it. That's not saying the same thing as I wouldn't vote for a Jew for president." On American Morning, Beck attributed the "leftist witch hunt" to the failure to "get the Fairness Doctrine out," saying, "so what they're trying to do is to shut people down." Read more

War in Iraq

Blitzer misrepresented Feingold-Reid Iraq amendment
On the May 14 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer claimed that legislation sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would "just stop the funding" for the Iraq war. In fact, the amendment stipulates that no funds may be appropriated to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq after March 31, 2008, but allows for three exceptions -- operations against Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups, protection of U.S. personnel and infrastructure, and training and equipping Iraqi security services. Read more

Polling

Conservative media tout flawed poll to call Dems 9-11 conspiracy theorists
Several conservative commentators have misrepresented the results of an April 20-May 1 Rasmussen Results poll question -- which was itself ambiguous -- to accuse a substantial percentage of Democrats of believing that President Bush knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance and deliberately did nothing to stop them. According to Rasmussen Reports, respondents were asked, "Did Bush know about the 9/11 attacks in advance?" Twenty-two percent replied that he did, 55 percent that he did not, and 22 percent were not sure. According to the poll: "Thirty-five percent of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure. Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view." Read more

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