Media Matters for America summary, May 17, 2007
 
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 22:03:33 -0400


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<p>Here are today's news items from <i>Media Matters for America</i>, 
click on the title or 'read more' to read the entirety of each story.</p>
<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/2008_elections?src=other">2008 Elections</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170007?src=other">On <em>Hardball</em>, Chuck Todd repeatedly claimed Giuliani "owns 9-11"</a></b><br />
While discussing the recent Fox News-sponsored Republican
presidential <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/politics/16repubs-text.html" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/politics/16repubs-text.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin&amp;pagewanted=all">debate</a>
on the May 16 edition of MSNBC&#39;s <i>Hardball</i>,
NBC News political director Chuck Todd repeatedly asserted -- three times during the course of his
appearance -- that
Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
"owns 9-11." 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170007?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170005?src=other">On MSNBC, Harwood said Giuliani has "claim to combat" experience from 9-11</a></b><br />
On the May 16 edition of MSNBC&#39;s <i>Countdown with Keith Olbermann</i>, CNBC chief
Washington correspondent and <i>Wall Street
Journal</i> national political editor John Harwood, comparing Sen. John McCain
(R-AZ) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), claimed, "Rudy
Giuliani also has a bit of a claim to combat in a different way, because he was
on the ground in 9-11."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170005?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170002?src=other">Limbaugh complained Democrats are not asked why "there are no women and minorities on stage"</a></b><br />
Referring to the May 15 Republican
presidential <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/politics/16repubs-text.html">debate</a>,
Rush Limbaugh asserted,
on the May 16 broadcast
of his nationally syndicated radio show, that "there&#39;s a template
developing for the Republican debate last night. &#39;How come there are no women and
minorities on stage?&#39; I guess you forgot about 2004." He then said:
"And I guess -- you know, the Democrats never get those kinds of
questions because it&#39;s always assumed that they&#39;re fair and just,
and not discriminatory and all that."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170002?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170001?src=other">Media reported McCain claim of consistency on abortion, ignored history of waffling</a></b><br />
Several news outlets uncritically repeated or paraphrased a claim
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) made during the May 15 Republican presidential <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/politics/16repubs-text.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin&amp;pagewanted=all">debate</a>
on Fox News, in which he said: "I have kept a consistent position on
right to life. And I haven&#39;t changed my position ... on even-numbered years or have changed
because of the different offices that I may be running for." But, as <i>Media Matters for America</i> has <a href="http://mediamatters.org//items/200702200008?src=other">documented</a>,
McCain has in fact waffled on the issue;
some conservatives have responded by accusing him of incoherence
and of trying to appeal to both sides in the debate.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170001?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170004?src=other">Once again, <em>Wash. Post</em> misstated Edwards' position on subprime lending</a></b><br />
A May 17 <i>Washington Post</i>
<a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051600811_pf.html">article</a>
by staff writer Matthew Mosk on
the release of personal financial disclosure forms by several 2008 presidential
candidates reported that former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) "has faced
questions about" his one-time employment with Fortress Investment Group
"because Fortress owned offshore funds that served as tax havens for
investors and because the firm&#39;s portfolio included subprime lenders, which
provide high-risk loans that often target minorities." Mosk added: "As a candidate, Edwards has
railed against both practices." In
fact, Edwards has not
"railed against" subprime lending, and his <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/predatory_mortgages/">campaign
website</a> refers to it as "a valuable alternative for families with
poor credit."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170004?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/war_in_iraq?src=other">War in Iraq</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170010?src=other"><em>NY Post</em> editorial accused Dem candidates in favor of Feingold bill of not "support[ing] the troops"</a></b><br />
A May 17 <i>New
York Post</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172007/postopinion/editorials/rudy_reads_the_riot_act_editorials_.htm">editorial</a> touted a flawed
poll on whether Democrats believe that President Bush had "advance
knowledge" of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and misrepresented Sen. Russ
Feingold&#39;s (D-WI) proposal to discontinue
the use of funds after March 31, 2008, for "the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States
Armed Forces." The editorial claimed
that the four Democratic presidential candidates who supported Feingold&#39;s
proposal -- Sens. Barack Obama (IL), Joe Biden (DE), Chris Dodd (CT) and
Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) -- do not "genuinely &#39;support the
troops.&#39; "
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170010?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170009?src=other">On <em>Glenn Beck</em>, Koch echoed McCain claim that Iraq "terrorists will follow us out here to the homeland"</a></b><br />
On the May 16 broadcast of CNN Headline
News&#39; <i>Glenn Beck,</i> during an
appearance by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, host <a href="http://mediamatters.org//issues_topics/people/glennbeck?src=other">Glenn Beck</a> cited
Koch&#39;s May 15 <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.nysun.com/article/54564">op-ed</a> in <i>The New
York Sun</i> -- in which he criticized the Democrats&#39; position on
Iraq -- and then said to Koch: "I think
you&#39;re exactly right. What are the Democrats thinking? They are in the
dustbin for all time if we pull out, because so many people will die."
Koch replied that the Democrats "will be blamed when, as [Republican
presidential candidate Sen.] John McCain [R-AZ] quite correctly says, the
terrorists will follow us out here to the homeland. And that, obviously, is far worse than our
fighting the terrorists in their homeland." However, Beck and Koch both ignored the reported assessments of a wide range of U.S.
intelligence officials and military analysts disagreeing with this view.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170009?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/domestic_spying?src=other">Domestic spying</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170006?src=other">ABC, CBS still have not reported on Comey's revelation of wiretapping "hospital drama"</a></b><br />
ABC and CBS still have not reported -- on
either their evening news or morning news broadcasts -- former deputy attorney
general James B. Comey&#39;s <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501060.html">account</a> of what NBC <i>Nightly News</i> anchor Brian Williams May 15
called a "rare glimpse of a high-level, late-night power struggle"
over the National Security Agency&#39;s warrantless domestic wiretapping program.
As NBC <i>Nightly News</i> justice correspondent Pete Williams reported
May 15, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that then-White House counsel
Alberto R. Gonzales and then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card attempted
to pressure then-Attorney General John Ashcroft "at his [hospital] bedside
... to approve an extension of the secret NSA warrantless eavesdropping program
over strong Justice Department objections," as <i>Media Matters for America</i> has <a href="http://mediamatters.org//items/200705160006?f=h_latest">noted</a>.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170006?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/economic_issues?src=other">Economic Issues</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170008?src=other">Broder falsely suggested that Clinton was given "free hand" trade authority that Bush wants Congress to renew</a></b><br />
In his May 17 <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602430.html?hpid=opinionsbox1">column</a> titled
"Can Democrats Take Yes for an Answer?" <i>The Washington Post</i>&#39;s
David Broder asked whether congressional Democrats will <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500989.html">renew</a> President
Bush&#39;s <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/2002/12953.htm">trade promotion authority</a>
(TPA), which Broder wrote is the "same free hand that [Bush&#39;s]
predecessors have enjoyed." But in fact, President Clinton was deprived
of trade promotion authority for the majority of his time in office. The
authority, which <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/78415.pdf#page=9">expired</a> in 1994 during Clinton&#39;s first
term, was not renewed by Congress until <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/2002/12953.htm">2002</a> -- after Bush entered the White
House. 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200705170008?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>




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