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.

Media

Pinkerton falsely claimed CNN showed photo "still" juxtaposing Falwell and Hitler
On Fox News Watch, Newsday's James Pinkerton asserted that, during its coverage of Rev. Jerry Falwell's death, CNN featured "a picture of Falwell and [Adolf] Hitler together" as "kind of their idea of what he [Falwell] ought to be." In fact, the image appeared in archived footage of a demonstration in which protestors held placards featuring the faces of Falwell, Hitler, and other prominent political figures. Read more

In criticizing Media Matters, Newsday's Thrush, Politico's Smith conflated investigative reporting with Blitzer's baseless question
In a May 18 entry to his Politico.com weblog, Politico senior political writer Ben Smith cited Newsday reporter Glenn Thrush's criticism of a May 14 Media Matters for America item, which documented CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer asking whether former President Bill Clinton's campaign ad on behalf of the 2008 presidential bid of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), is "the act of a supportive husband or a sign the Clinton campaign is feeling desperate." Thrush quoted Media Matters Director of Media Relations Karl Frisch's statement regarding the May 14 item: "Journalists shouldn't be in the business of asking loaded questions that aren't based on any discernible fact." Smith left out the actual question Blitzer posed that Media Matters flagged, writing that Media Matters "offered [Thrush] an ad hoc new standard not only for what reporters write -- but for the questions we ask." But Thrush and Smith conflated two different actions, with very different purposes and consequences -- that of a reporter digging for information and that of an anchor making a baseless suggestion on-air in the form of a rhetorical question. Contrary to their accusation, Media Matters faulted Blitzer not for asking the question in the course of investigating a story but for posing the question rhetorically to tease an upcoming segment. Read more

Kurtz again suggested false comparison between MSNBC, Fox News
In his May 21 Media Notes column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz suggested that MSNBC is the liberal equivalent of Fox News. Kurtz asserted: "While several of the Democratic candidates have appeared on Fox, the top tier has been shying away, even as the Republicans have debated on MSNBC." Kurtz was referring to the May 3 Republican presidential debate sponsored by MSNBC and The Politico, which was moderated by Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball and the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, but Kurtz offered no support for the comparison he drew. In fact, Media Matters for America has documented numerous occasions in which Matthews and his colleagues have showered praise on several of the Republican presidential hopefuls or baselessly attacked Democrats. Read more

2008 Elections

Uncritically airing Giuliani's attack, media ignored context of Clinton's remarks on taxes
In reporting on Rudy Giuliani's Republican debate performance, several media outlets uncritically repeated his attack on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, that "with regard to taxes," she "said ... that we have to take money from you in order to give it to the common good." But these outlets did not provide any context for Clinton's remarks, which she reportedly made at a fundraiser in front of an audience that consisted of people she described as "well enough off that ... the [Bush administration] tax cuts may have helped" them.
Read more

Terrorism

Russert allowed Gingrich to cite Fort Dix Six as proof that terrorists "don't plan to stop in Baghdad"
On the May 20 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) suggested without challenge from host Tim Russert that the alleged plot by six men to carry out an armed attack on the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey represents proof that if the United States withdraws forces from Iraq, terrorists "don't plan to stop in Baghdad. They are coming here as soon as they can get here." However, as Media Matters for America has documented, the assertion that terrorists will "com[e] here" following a U.S. troop withdrawal is widely challenged by experts. Read more

War in Iraq

Broder touted Bush "conviction" that "preeminent mission was to combat the forces behind" 9-11
In his May 20 column, Washington Post columnist David Broder wrote that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings "armed" President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "with a conviction that their preeminent mission was to combat the forces behind those assaults." Broder, however, offered no explanation as to how the Iraq war fit into Bush's "preeminent mission" to "combat the forces behind" the 9-11 attacks. Indeed, in past columns, Broder challenged the Bush administration's suggestions of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda and postulated that Bush may have resolved to remove Saddam Hussein from power before 9-11. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

On MSNBC, Cramer asked if Carter "play[s] for another nation" or "his own fifth column"
On the May 21 edition of MSNBC's Jim Cramer Live, while discussing former President Jimmy Carter's criticism of President Bush, host Jim Cramer asked: "Who does he play for, Carter? Does he play for himself? Does he play for another nation? Does he play for his own fifth column?" According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, a "fifth column" is a "clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity by any means at their disposal." Read more

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