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

On O'Reilly, Gerth and Van Natta dismiss "irrelevant" Media Matters, again dodging substantive criticism
On the June 11 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, authors of Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Little, Brown & Co., June 2007) dismissed Media Matters for America as "irrelevant," asserting that "[n]o one takes them seriously." Gerth and Van Natta's comments were in response to host Bill O'Reilly's claim that the authors "have been attacked" by "that despicable website." O'Reilly quoted from two Media Matters items documenting factual inaccuracies in Gerth's and Van Natta's work -- neither of which the authors responded to substantively. Read more

KSFO guest Mulhern on Clinton fan base: "[H]ow many Yale-educated lesbians are there?"
On the June 12 broadcast of San Francisco radio station KSFO's The Lee Rodgers & Melanie Morgan Program, regular guest commentator and American Thinker contributor Peter Mulhern claimed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has "never been all that welcome in Democratic Party ranks" and, responding to a comment by Rodgers that "Hillary's starting to wear a little bit thin," said, "Well, maybe not for her fans but, you know, how many Yale-educated lesbians are there?" Read more

Matthews: "Ultimate street politician" Giuliani was "on the curb" with "soot on his face" on 9-11
On the June 12 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, called Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani "the ultimate street politician," adding, "He was there on the curb when 9-11 struck. He had soot on his face." He also called Giuliani a "street fighter" and described him as "somebody who's clear and present and right there answering our questions," and who "gives us the awful truth." Read more

Religious Discrimination

Robertson: "Islam is not a religion. It is a worldwide political movement meant on domination"
On the June 12 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, following a report on Muslims in Minneapolis seeking religious accommodations at school and work, host Pat Robertson stated, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have to recognize that Islam is not a religion. It is a worldwide political movement meant on domination of the world. And it is meant to subjugate all people under Islamic law." He characterized the American Muslim community as "Islam light" and went on to say Muslims "want to take over and we want to impose Sharia on you. And before long, ladies are going to be dressed in burqas and whatever garments they would put on them, and next thing you know, men are going to be allowed to have wife-beating and you'll be beheading adulterers and so on and so forth." Read more

Immigration

For seven hours, MSNBC hosted only conservatives and reporters to discuss immigration
During the seven hours of the June 11 edition of MSNBC Live (9 a.m.-4 p.m. ET), 15 segments aired about immigration or the Senate immigration bill, none of which featured a Democratic or progressive commentator. Indeed, in nine of the 15 segments, the anchor interviewed a conservative anti-immigration activist who had opposed the bill -- including six separate solo interviews with MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan. The remaining six segments consisted of two panels with Buchanan and conservative activist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Tamar Jacoby (who, alone among the guests, favored the recent immigration bill), an interview with Congressional Quarterly immigration reporter Michael Sandler, an interview with MSNBC terrorism analyst Joe Cantamessa, and two reports from MSNBC congressional correspondent Mike Viqueira. Read more

2006 Elections

MSNBC's Tucker, Fox's Special Report misidentified Lieberman as a "Democrat"
While reporting on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's (CT) suggestion that the United States should be "prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians," MSNBC's Tucker and Fox News' Special Report misidentified Lieberman as a Democrat. On the June 11 edition of Tucker, host Tucker Carlson referred to Lieberman as "a leading Democrat." On the same day's edition of Special Report, Fox News Washington correspondent James Rosen called Lieberman "a prominent Senate Democrat." As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, on January 12, Congressional Quarterly reported that "Lieberman has asked to be called an Independent Democrat," adding, "[I]f the compound modifier that the senator prefers was not going to take hold, then Lieberman's second choice is to be described as an Independent" rather than being described as a "Democrat." Read more

Detainees/Abu Ghraib/Guantanamo Bay

MSNBC's Jansing did not challenge Snow on claim of al-Marri "trial," which detainee has not received
On the June 12 edition of MSNBC Live, host Chris Jansing did not challenge White House press secretary Tony Snow's claim that "[n]one of" the many accusations against alleged terrorist Ali al-Marri were "even questioned at trial." In fact, contrary to Snow's suggestion, there was no trial. Jansing had asked for Snow's reaction to a June 11 decision by a Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel finding that the military's detention of al-Marri was unlawful and ordering that al-Marri be charged with civilian crimes, held as a material witness, deported, or released. Snow responded that al-Marri was "a member of Al Qaeda, had been working with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of September 11, who was apparently a part of a sleeper cell to do damage to financial centers in the United States," adding: "None of this was even questioned at trial." But al-Marri never had a "trial" at which he could challenge the government's assertions. Indeed, it was the military's authority to detain him without trial that the court of appeals was adjudicating: A month before al-Marri's scheduled trial in civilian court on criminal charges -- to which he had pleaded not guilty -- the government placed him into military custody when President Bush, in a June 23, 2003, order, declared that al-Marri "is closely associated with al Qaeda" and was therefore an "enemy combatant." Read more

War in Iraq

Ignoring Libby's early obstruction, Broder attacked Fitzgerald for "relentlessly" pursuing Libby
Calling the prosecution of former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby a "sideshow" in his June 10 column, The Washington Post's David Broder accused special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald of getting "caught up in the excitement of the case and pursu[ing] Libby relentlessly." But contrary to Broder's suggestion, the crimes for which Libby was ultimately convicted did not all occur in the course of Fitzgerald's "relentless" pursuit of him. Libby took one of the actions for which he was convicted even before Fitzgerald took over the case, during the Department of Justice's initial investigation. Further, Fitzgerald's investigation and subsequent indictment of Libby were not a "sideshow," but, rather, the direct result of Libby's alleged obstruction of the underlying investigation of the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Moreover, in suggesting that Fitzgerald was overzealous in pursuing Libby, Broder compared Fitzgerald to "other special prosecutors before him," but the comparison, particularly when considered in the context of the best known independent counsels, Kenneth Starr, falls apart in at least one key respect. Read more

Polling

In flawed comparison with Pelosi, LA Times article cited Gingrich's current poll numbers
In a June 12 article on a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, the Los Angeles Times compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) approval rating with respondents' recollection of their opinion of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) when he served as speaker in the mid-1990s. The Times asserted Pelosi has "failed to impress many Americans. Only 36% approve of the way she is handling the job, the poll found. In contrast, 46% of Americans in the current poll said they approved of the way Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia handled the job after he led the GOP into the majority in 1994." However, the Times article did not report a key fact noted in the poll analysis: "[I]n his days as Speaker, Gingrich never got past 30% in overall favorable ratings." Read more

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