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

Klein wrote of Paul's "singular moment of weirdness" at debate, but 9-11 report supports his claim

Reviewing the May 15 Republican presidential debate in his column in the May 28 edition of Time, Joe Klein wrote that Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) had a "singular moment of weirdness" when he said "that al-Qaeda attacked on Sept. 11 because the U.S. had been messing around in the Middle East, bombing Iraq." Klein made no mention of the 9-11 Commission report's findings -- which Paul has cited in support of his response at the debate -- including that Osama bin Laden's verbal attacks against the United States "found a ready audience among millions of Arabs and Muslims angry at the United States because of issues ranging from Iraq to Palestine to America's support for their countries' repressive rulers." Read more

Criticizing Media Matters, Human Events writer affirmed Buchanan's purported "non-medical diagnosis" of Clinton
In a May 18 article responding to a May 16 Media Matters for America item on Republican strategist Bay Buchanan's suggestion in her new book, The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (Regnery Publishing), that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) may suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, Human Events news producer Ericka Andersen claimed that the omission of an endnote in which Buchanan purported to offer the symptoms of the disorder "was the only basis for Media Matters' hit job on Buchanan's non-medical diagnosis." Read more

Olbermann named Limbaugh "Worst Person," flagged Lehrer post about Morgan
On the May 17 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for complaining that, as Media Matters for America noted, Democrats are not asked "why there are no women and minorities on stage" during presidential debates. On the May 16 broadcast of his radio show, referring to the May 15 Republican presidential debate, Limbaugh asserted that "there's a template developing for the Republican debate last night. 'How come there are no women and minorities on stage?' I guess you forgot about 2004." He added: "And I guess -- you know, the Democrats never get those kinds of questions because it's always assumed that they're fair and just, and not discriminatory and all that." During the "Worst Person" segment, Olbermann said: "Or, and this is just a theory, maybe it's because at the Democratic debate there were women and minorities on the stage. I thought you were a more worthy opponent than this, sir. I forgot you were comedian Rush Limbaugh: today's 'Worst Person in the World.' " Read more

Klein, Raasch praised Giuliani's misrepresentation of Clinton quote
In his column in the May 28 edition of Time, Joe Klein uncritically quoted former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's assertion during the May 15 Republican presidential debate that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) "believes" that "an unfettered free market is the most disastrous thing in modern America." Similarly, in his May 17 USA Today column, Chuck Raasch repeated the quote after asserting that "the possibility of a Hillary Clinton presidency" was "the political equivalent of a bullfighter's red cape to a Republican audience." However, neither Klein nor Raasch noted that Giuliani misrepresented what Clinton said. Giuliani said during the debate: Read more

Immigration

O'Reilly warned of immigration bill's "unintended consequences" -- changing ethnic landscape
On the May 17 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, while discussing May 17 Senate negotiations on a bipartisan immigration bill, host Bill O'Reilly said: "Reluctantly, and I mean reluctantly, 'Talking Points' is going to support this legislation. It's the best we can get and does improve the situation." But O'Reilly asserted that the bill "drastically alters the United States of America," adding that "there will be unintended consequences all over the place. The new census report says America's now one-third minority." He continued, "And in four states -- California, New Mexico, Texas, and Hawaii -- whites are the minority." Read more

Confronted by SPLC reps, Dobbs now denies his reporter made leprosy claim that he previously defended
On the May 16 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, host and CBS Early Show special contributor Lou Dobbs accused two officials of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of misrepresenting a claim made on the April 14, 2005, edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight concerning the number of leprosy cases in the United States. But the SPLC's assertion -- that CNN correspondent Christine Romans inaccurately reported there were 7,000 leprosy cases "in the past three years" -- is true, and, when confronted by CBS News correspondent corespondent Lesley Stahl in a May 6 profile of him on CBS' 60 Minutes, Dobbs insisted it was accurate, then again insisted on its accuracy on his own show the following night. Read more

Politico article on White House-Senate immigration agreement quoted only Republicans
In his May 18 "Political Playbook", discussing reactions to the May 17 agreement between the White House and a bipartisan group of senators on comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration law, Politico chief political writer Mike Allen cited Bush administration sources and the three leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination but failed to quote a single Democratic source, even though several prominent Democratic leaders had already commented on the deal. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Despite Buchanan's defense of book as "not partisan," Dobbs did not discuss her role in Tancredo campaign
On the May 17 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, host and CBS Early Show special contributor Lou Dobbs interviewed Bay Buchanan, who is promoting her new anti-Clinton book, The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (Regnery Publishing), but he allowed Buchanan to claim that her book was "not partisan" and "completely objective," without noting that she now works as a senior adviser to Republican presidential hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo (CO). It was only near the end of the interview that on-screen text identified Buchanan as "Rep. Tancredo's campaign manager," without identifying Tancredo's party or the fact that Tancredo is seeking the same office Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is running for. Read more

Savage continued to label supporters of the Fairness Doctrine "Nazis"

On the May 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage called Democrats who support the proposed Media Ownership Reform Act (MORA), "National Socialists," continuing his pattern of comparing Democratic supporters of MORA to "Nazis." MORA would reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine," which, until 1987, required "that discussion of public issues be presented on broadcast stations and that each side of those issues must be given fair coverage," as the Supreme Court wrote when it upheld the doctrine in 1969. Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

Savage called Latino advocacy group "the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people"
On the May 17 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Michael Savage labeled Hispanic advocacy group the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) "the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people." Savage also said of NCLR, "This is the most stone racist group I've ever seen in this country!" despite noting, "It's true they haven't hung anybody." Read more

Domestic spying

Ignoring reader question about networks, Broder asserted media have been "aggressive and extensive" in covering Gonzales
In an online chat, David Broder responded to a question asking why "two out of three major networks have decided not to cover" James Comey's testimony about Alberto Gonzales attempting to pressure then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the administration's wiretapping program by claiming that "the coverage of the firing of the US attorneys has been aggressive and extensive, as it should be." Read more

LGBT Issues

Coulter's complaint: Falwell should have blamed Sen. Kennedy and Barry Lynn for 9-11
In a May 16 column titled "Jerry Falwell -- Say Hello to Ronald Reagan!," right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, who proclaimed, "Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell," admitted that she disagreed with Falwell on "one small item": He should have assigned blame for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to "[Sen.] Teddy Kennedy [D-MA] and 'the Reverend' Barry Lynn," in addition to "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians -- who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle." Lynn is the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Read more

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