Media Matters for America summary, June 06, 2007
 
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 22:03:06 -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/200706060005?src=other">On <em>O'Reilly</em>, Bernstein vs. Bernstein vs. Bernstein</a></b><br />
In a discussion on the June 5 edition of
Fox News&#39; <i>The O&#39;Reilly Factor</i>
of his book, <i><a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375407666">A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary
Rodham Clinton</a></i> (Random House, June 2007), author
Carl Bernstein, in the span of a few seconds, gave virtually every possible
answer to host <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://tribune/working/items/editor/From%20the%20June%205%20edition%20of%20Fox%20News%E2%80%99%20The%20O%E2%80%99Reilly%20Factor:%20%3cblockquote%3e%20%5b39:18%5d-%5b41:37%5d">Bill O&#39;Reilly</a>&#39;s
initial question about whether Clinton had broken the law. First, Bernstein
said simply, "Yes," but then gave the following contradictory
statements in response to follow-up questions by O&#39;Reilly: "She broke
the law if, indeed, she perjured herself," and "No. The special
prosecutor determined that she did not." After Bernstein stated:
"Let me be really straightforward. I don&#39;t think she broke the law. I
think there was a time that she did not tell the truth," O&#39;Reilly
asked, "Under oath?" Bernstein replied, "You know, I wasn&#39;t
in the room."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060005?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060013?src=other">Ignoring Romney's Iraq falsehood, <em>Wash. Post</em> called Huckabee's Reagan remark the "Gaffe of the Night"</a></b><br />
A <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/06/06/GR2007060600234.html">graphic</a>
accompanying a June 6 <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/05/AR2007060501085.html">article</a>
about the previous night&#39;s Republican presidential debate asserted that
the "Gaffe of the Night" was committed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee, who "incorrectly sa[id] [that] yesterday was Ronald
Reagan&#39;s birthday." The graphic itself, however, contained a much
more significant misstatement: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney&#39;s
erroneous account of the events leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Asked
during the debate if it was "a mistake for us to invade Iraq,"
Romney replied, [W]e wouldn&#39;t be in the conflict we&#39;re in" if
"Saddam Hussein had open[ed] up his country to IAEA [International Atomic
Energy Agency] inspectors and they&#39;d come in and they&#39;d found that
there were no weapons of mass destruction." In fact, Hussein did allow
IAEA inspectors into Iraq
before the invasion, and they "<a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2003/ebsp2003n006.shtml">found</a>
no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons
programme in Iraq."
Saddam also allowed the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission (UNMOVIC) into Iraq
before the invasion, and its inspectors "<a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/quarterly_reports/s-2003-580.pdf#page=5" title="http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/quarterly_reports/s-2003-580.pdf#page=5">did
not find</a> evidence of the continuation or resumption of programmes of
weapons of mass destruction." 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060013?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060012?src=other"><em>Politico</em>'s Obama coverage marred by inaccuracies, misleading reporting, and baseless allegations</a></b><br />
<i>The Politico</i> launched in
January with the <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.politico.com/aboutus/">stated goal</a> of "covering the politics
of Capitol Hill and of the presidential campaign, and the business of Washington lobbying and
advocacy with enterprise, style, and impact." Its coverage of Sen. Barack
Obama&#39;s (D-IL) presidential campaign, however, has been marred by factual
inaccuracies, misleading reporting, and baseless allegations: In less
than five months, <i>The Politico</i>
has wrongly suggested that Obama flip-flopped on the origin of his name,
branded him a "rookie" for making "mistakes" they
acknowledge are "trivial," baselessly suggested he borrowed
rhetoric from former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), wrongly claimed that he changed
his position on health care mandates and flip-flopped on whether President Bush
has made us "safer," diagnosed him with a "Jewish problem,"
and allowed a "Republican
strategist working on the 2008 presidential race" to attack Obama
anonymously.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060012?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060004?src=other"><em>Politico</em>'s Simon now on to a different part of Romney's anatomy: "shoulders you could land a 737 on"</a></b><br />
In his June 6 <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4356.html">column</a>, <i>Politico</i> chief political columnist Roger
Simon declared former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the winner of the June 5
Republican presidential debate and attributed Romney&#39;s victory, in part,
to the fact that he is "[s]trong, clear, gives good soundbite, and has shoulders you could
land a 737 on." 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060004?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060003?src=other">O'Reilly cropped Edwards' statement on terror in order to claim "Edwards looks dopey"</a></b><br />
On the June 4 edition of Fox News&#39; <i>The O&#39;Reilly Factor</i>, discussing
former Sen. John Edwards&#39; (D-NC) response to a question from moderator
Wolf Blitzer during the June 3 Democratic presidential debate, host <a href="http://mediamatters.org//issues_topics/people/billoreilly?src=other">Bill
O&#39;Reilly</a> aired a clip of Edwards
saying: "What this global war on terror bumper sticker -- a political slogan,
that&#39;s all it is, all it&#39;s ever been -- was intended to do was
for George Bush to use it to justify everything he does." O&#39;Reilly
commented: "The good news here is that most Americans in both parties
understand that Muslim extremists want to kill us and will if they get the
chance. So John Edwards looks dopey." In fact, just before making that
statement, Edwards stressed the threat of terrorism and discussed his strategy for preventing
it, telling Blitzer: "As president of the United States, I will do absolutely everything to
find terrorists where they are, to stop them before they can do harm to us,
before they can do harm to America or to its allies. Every tool available --
military alliances, intelligence -- I will use."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060003?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/ethics?src=other">Ethics</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060006?src=other">UPDATED: Fox News' African-American elected official mix-up not its first</a></b><br />
On <em>The Live Desk</em>,
Fox News showed footage of Rep.
John Conyers while Brian Wilson reported on the expected indictment of Rep. William Jefferson. This is not the first time Fox News has shown footage of one African-American elected official while discussing another -- in the previous case, airing footage of Harold Ford Jr. while talking about Sen. Barack Obama.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060006?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060011?src=other"><em>Wash. Post</em>'s Birnbaum: Jefferson indictment balances out multiple GOP convictions, indictments, investigations</a></b><br />
On Fox News, Jeffrey Birnbaum asserted that the
indictment of Rep. William Jefferson "makes the allegations of corruption
bipartisan." However,
at least nine Republican members of Congress and Bush administration officials
have been indicted or pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060011?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/global_warming?src=other">Global Warming</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060009?src=other">On Fox's <em>Special Report</em>, Hume cited debunked Oregon Petition on global warming</a></b><br />
On <em>Special
Report</em>, Brit Hume cited a column asserting that "a majority of
astrophysicists and other solar scientists may in fact disagree with the
conventional wisdom" on global warming and said that the author, Lawrence
Solomon, "points out that almost 18,000 scientists signed a petition in
opposition to the Kyoto Protocol." But the petition to which Hume and
Solomon apparently referred has been disavowed by the National Academy of
Sciences, and many of the signatures on the petition apparently belong to people
who are not climate scientists.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060009?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/propaganda_noise_machine?src=other">Propaganda/Noise Machine</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060010?src=other">John Gibson put <em>Media Matters </em>"on notice," refuses to correct falsehood about funding</a></b><br />
On the June 5 edition of his nationally syndicated radio
program, Fox News host John Gibson said he was putting one of his "groups
of enemies on notice" after receiving a "demand[] for a
retraction" from <i>Media Matters for
America</i>. Gibson said that "they are complaining that I said
something about them which isn&#39;t true, which was that, basically, it was a front for [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham
Clinton (D-NY)]." As <i>Media Matters</i>
<a href="http://mediamatters.org//items/200706040008?src=other">noted</a>,
Gibson falsely stated on his June 1 radio show that <i>Media Matters</i> was "invented" and
"funded" by "the Hillary Clinton campaign."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060010?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/media?src=other">Media</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060008?src=other">Olbermann named Beck "Worst Person" for speculating that Kucinich's wife under influence of "date rape drug"</a></b><br />
On the June 5 edition of
MSNBC&#39;s <i>Countdown,</i> host
Keith Olbermann named <a href="http://mediamatters.org//issues_topics/people/glennbeck?src=other">Glenn Beck</a>
the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World"
segment for "questioning what caused Elizabeth Harper to marry Democratic
Congressman Dennis Kucinich [OH]."
As <i>Media Matters for America</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org//items/200706040007?f=h_side">documented</a>, on
the June 4 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Beck said of
Kucinich and his wife: "How did that happen?" Beck went on to speculate
whether she was under the influence of "dope" or "some sort of ... date rape drug"
and described the drug he had in mind as "not powerful enough to actually
knock you out, but it&#39;s powerful enough to, like, make you think that you&#39;re
not standing next to Dennis Kucinich and making out with him." Beck
further speculated that the drug might be "cyanide," adding:
"That would be the only thing that would really dull the senses enough.
Even then, your dead body would be like, &#39;Dennis Kucinich has his tongue
in my mouth.&#39; " 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200706060008?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>




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