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

Media blasted Edwards for speech fee but omitted Giuliani speeches, Edwards' explanation
Several media figures have attacked Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for receiving a $55,000 fee for a January 2006 speech at the University of California-Davis -- as first reported in a May 21 entry to the San Francisco Chronicle's Politics Blog. In several cases, they have not also mentioned reports that Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani charged Oklahoma State University $100,000 for a speech he delivered in 2006 and an additional $47,000 for the use of a private jet, as Media Matters for America has noted. Moreover, several left out the response by the Edwards campaign, which asserted that UC-Davis offset the cost through sponsorship and ticket sales to the event. Read more

Carlson defended Giuliani's speeches as "selling ... talent," attacked Edwards' speech as "soaking a public university"
On the May 22 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson attacked Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) for his January 9, 2006, speech at the University of California-Davis, claiming that Edwards "soak[ed] a public university for $55,000 when he's already worth millions." He then asked: "Why the hell is he doing that? What's the possible justification for that?" However, just five days earlier, Carlson had defended the millions of dollars former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani made on the lecture circuit in recent years, saying: "If I make millions giving speeches, I have to get up and perform. I'm selling my talent." Additionally, Carlson made no mention of the fact that UC-Davis charged admission for Edwards' speech, which, combined with sponsorship of the event, offset Edwards' fee, according to Edwards' campaign. Read more

Media

Kurtz faulted media for depicting Gore as "exaggerator" but omitted his own role
In his May 22 "Media Notes" column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote that in contrast to current media reports portraying former Vice President Al Gore as "a heroic figure," Gore "got terrible coverage" during his 2000 presidential campaign, adding that Gore "was depicted as an Internet-inventing exaggerator who sighed during the debates and needed a consultant to steer him to an earth-toned wardrobe." Kurtz, however, did not mention his own contribution to this depiction of Gore -- misrepresenting Gore's statement about his role in creating the Internet and falsely claiming that Gore "suggest[ed] he discovered the Love Canal disaster." Read more

O'Reilly was Olbermann's "Worst Person" runner-up for "talk show nuts" comment
On the May 22 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the "runner-up" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, "comparing extremists on the immigration debate to the, quote, 'talk show nuts who are telling you that they're gonna nuke Tehran,' " despite having made similar assertions. Olbermann noted: "Last December 5th, Bill-O said, '[W]e may have to' 'level cities like Tehran, kill hundreds of thousands of people. A year ago, January, Bill-O said, '[I]t's a matter of time before the United States of America and Great Britain will have to bomb the country of Iran.' " Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Limbaugh lashed out at Media Matters and NBC, having declined invitation from Today to respond
On the May 22 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, in response to segments on the May 21 editions of NBC's Today and MSNBC's Scarborough Country highlighting his "Barack, the Magic Negro" parody, Rush Limbaugh claimed: "Now, here's what gets me about this. This whole thing came from this website called Media Matters for America. And the drive-by media, NBC, Dan Abrams, the Today show people, everybody, CNN, they rely on this religiously to find out, quote-unquote 'find out,' what happens on this program." Limbaugh continued: "They don't listen to this program. Dan Abrams didn't listen to this program about any -- he doesn't know what happened here. His source is Media Matters for America and maybe a couple of newspaper columns." Read more

InsightMag.com recycled Clinton myths, Vince Foster conspiracy theories
In a May 14 column about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) headlined "Media ignores Hillary's scandals," InsightMag.com's "Washington Watch" claimed, "It is right to ask with fresh lenses: What was her role in Whitewater, the death of [Clinton administration deputy White House counsel] Vince Foster, the curtailment of 'bimbo eruptions,' Travelgate, Filegate, and Monicagate?" The anonymously authored column continued: "Did she have an affair with Vince Foster -- as was reported in The American Spectator in the 1990s? Is she a lesbian, as has also been rumored for years?" Read more

Domestic spying

Blitzer did not ask Bloomberg about police surveillance of political activists before 2004 convention
During an interview with Michael Bloomberg, CNN's Wolf Blitzer did not take the opportunity to ask Bloomberg about recent reports that "the New York Police Department was secretly monitoring" anti-Bush activists and would-be protesters before and during the Republican National Convention in 2004 "and not just at public events."
Read more

LGBT Issues

SF Chronicle uncritically reported discredited, anti-gay "research" on same-sex parenting
In a clarification addressing an article on a new campaign encouraging same-sex parents to adopt foster children, the San Francisco Chronicle acknowledged that Family Research Institute director Paul Cameron, whom it had suggested was an expert on gay issues in its article, had been expelled from the American Psychological Association and that the institute has been "named a hate group." But the clarification did not address Cameron's discredited claim, reported in the article, that gays "are more likely to molest children of their same sex"; nor did it note that Cameron's "research" has been widely discredited. Read more

Polling

Michelle Malkin distorted poll of U.S. Muslims to claim they are "cause for big concern"
In her May 23 syndicated column, right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin wrote: "If we believe the spin of Associated Press headline writers, there's little cause for concern about" a May 22 survey by the Pew Research Center on the American Muslim population. Malkin was referring to a May 22 AP article reporting on the survey. According to the AP, the poll "revealed" that the U.S. Muslim population is "largely mainstream" and "a community that in many ways blends comfortably into society." Malkin continued by asserting that "the details of the poll show that the always-downplayed tiny minority of jihadi sympathizers in America is cause for big concern." To support this claim, however, Malkin misrepresented the findings of the study. Indeed, she both exaggerated the percentage of respondents who believe that the U.S. government was responsible for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and obscured the actual share with favorable views toward Al Qaeda. Read more

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