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

Hume falsely claimed that defeated Obama amendment "may be the killer amendment that ends" the immigration bill
On the June 7 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume claimed that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "managed to get" an amendment to the comprehensive immigration reform bill "passed," and that it "may be the killer amendment that ... ends this bill." In fact, Obama's amendment, which would have required the bill's merit-based evaluation system for new visas to expire after five years, failed by a vote of 42-55 -- making it impossible for the measure to have "end[ed]" the immigration bill. Read more

Wash. Post review misrepresents, conflates allegations in Clinton books
In a June 10 Washington Post review of two recently released books about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) -- Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. (Little, Brown & Co.) and A Woman in Charge by Carl Bernstein (Knopf) -- author Kevin Phillips misrepresented both books' contents and falsely conflated their purported findings. Indeed, in noting the assertion in Her Way that Bill and Hillary Clinton "sought and planned for sequential power: eight years in the White House for him, then eight years for her," Phillips wrote that, according to Gerth (whose name is misspelled as "Gersh" throughout the review) and Van Natta, "this long-term plan has actually been set down on paper and confirmed by a former senior Clinton administration official." But while Gerth and Van Natta do assert in the book that, by 1993, the Clintons planned a two-term presidency for Hillary Clinton, at no point in the book do they purport to have written evidence or cite an "administration official" for the claim. In fact, the only evidence they offer of Hillary Clinton's long-term presidential ambitions is a second-hand account of a conversation between Bill Clinton and historian Taylor Branch - an account that Branch has disputed. Moreover, as Media Matters for America noted, Gerth and Van Natta did not defend the claim in recent media appearances. Read more

Media

Matthews serenaded senior Bush adviser with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"
On the June 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews began an interview with White House counselor Dan Bartlett, who had announced his resignation earlier that day, by singing: "For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow." Bartlett responded: "Appreciate that." Read more

CNN's Holmes on Alabama state Senate altercation: "I mean, they say that Democrats are weak on defense, but that's ridiculous."
On the June 8 edition of CNN's Newsroom, following a report on an altercation between Alabama State Sens. Charles Bishop (R) and Lowell Barron (D), co-anchor T.J. Holmes stated: "All right, the Democrat didn't hit him back. I mean, they say that Democrats are weak on defense, but that's ridiculous." Read more

Stem Cell Research

CNN's Koppel uncritically reported GOP argument that new research moots stem cell debate
On the June 7 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, during a segment on Congress' passage of a bill expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, host Wolf Blitzer noted that President Bush had suggested that a recent breakthrough in which scientists reprogrammed skin cells in mice "could change the whole debate" by "creating, in effect, the equivalent of embryonic stem cells by another procedure that wouldn't require destroying these human embryos." Blitzer went on to ask CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel about Congress' reaction to this scientific development. Koppel replied that during the House debate over the bill, Republicans talked about "the fact that you could use the skin cells from mice." But the scientists who published the findings did not find that mouse skin cells could be used to create human stem cells. To the contrary, they have warned that the process might not work with human cells, and several news reports noted that adapting the process could take a significant amount of time. Moreover, neither Koppel nor Blitzer noted that these scientists have expressed their support for the bill that the House passed. Read more

Immigration

During Dana Bash report, CNN on-screen text labeled immigration bill "amnesty"
During the June 7 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, while CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash was reporting on Senate deliberations of an immigration bill, CNN included two separate on-screen texts referring to the bill as "amnesty" and the "amnesty bill," respectively, even though Bash herself has noted in previous reporting that "amnesty" is a characterization of the bill favored by "conservative critics." In fact, when CNN's The Situation Room had aired the same report earlier that day, it had used the less inflammatory descriptor "Immigration Bill" as its on-screen text, suggesting that Dobbs' program was responsible for adding editorial commentary during what was ostensibly a CNN news report. Read more

Ethics

Politico noted DeLay's "retirement" from Congress, but not that he resigned after indictment
In a June 7 article on Republican efforts to win back the congressional seat formerly held by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), now belonging to Democrat Nick Lampson, The Politico reported that no Republican appeared on the ballot in the 22nd District in 2006 "[b]ecause of DeLay's withdrawal from the race and retirement from Congress in June 2006." The article did not note that DeLay resigned his seat following his indictment in Texas on money laundering and conspiracy charges relating to a campaign finance probe and that two of DeLay's former staffers, press secretary Michael Scanlon and deputy chief of staff Tony C. Rudy, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Read more

War in Iraq

O'Reilly named "Worst Person" for "hypocritical" well-wishes for Cindy Sheehan
On the June 7 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News' Bill O'Reilly the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, commenting "on Cindy Sheehan's retirement from the anti-war limelight" and saying, "I don't like to see any American suffer the way I think Ms. Sheehan has suffered, from losing her son to being personally attacked. And we wish her well." Olbermann observed: "In August 2005, O'Reilly said she was guilty of conduct, which, quote, 'other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq think borders on treasonous.' Two months later, he issued a fatwa, a list of cowards who would not appear on his show and among them, Cindy Sheehan -- but he doesn't want to see her personally attacked." Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

O'Reilly apparently finds it odd that Kansas murder suspect is a "white-bread guy"

On the June 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said of Edwin Roy Hall -- the man charged with murdering 18-year-old Kelsey Smith after abducting her from the parking lot of a Target store in Overland Park, Kansas: "[T]his guy who is charged has a child and a wife. You know, he's like white-bread guy. And we're all going, 'What is that?' " Read more

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