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

ABC's Tapper, Stephanopoulos call Bloomberg a "liberal Democrat," despite endorsement of Bush in 2004
On the June 24 broadcast of ABC's This Week, ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper and host George Stephanopoulos, discussing a possible independent presidential run by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, described him as a "liberal Democrat." However, Bloomberg endorsed Bush's re-election in 2004 and has expressed support for the Iraq war and tied it to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In addition, no mention was made of a significant Bloomberg controversy that undermines the assertion that he is a "liberal Democrat": the New York Police Department's (NYPD) surveillance of nonviolent anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war activists and protesters prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention -- a story that, as Media Matters for America noted (here and here), has been covered several times in recent months. Read more

Limbaugh guest host Sullivan used Clinton's Sopranos parody to peddle debunked conspiracy theories
On the June 22 broadcast of nationally syndicated The Rush Limbaugh Show, guest host Tom Sullivan, a financial columnist for The Sacramento Bee and local radio host, used Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (NY) campaign video spoof of a scene from the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos to resurrect debunked right-wing conspiracy theories about the deaths of Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown: "I think the next episode could bring in the question about what happened to Vince Foster. ... [W]hat's the real story behind Ron Brown? I mean ... the episodes on this would go on forever." Read more

Luntz -- PBS' pick to survey public response after Democratic forum -- was longtime Giuliani pollster
As Media Matters for America has noted, Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who the Public Broadcasting Service has announced will provide "public feedback" following PBS' coverage of the June 28 Democratic presidential forum, has shown open disdain for Democratic priorities and candidates and has reportedly been reprimanded and censured by his peers for withholding and misrepresenting polling data and methodology. But, in addition to leaving out these facts from its press release announcing Luntz's participation, PBS, which referred to Luntz only as a "noted pollster," made no mention of the fact that Luntz has worked for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a potential general election opponent of one of the forum's participants, and has heaped praise on Giuliani this year. On the February 7 edition of PBS' Tavis Smiley, after referring to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as the "[b]est communicator out there," Luntz said: "Giuliani, it's about results and success. ... [T]his is a guy who took a city that was on its knees and brought it back to its feet. You can now take your kids there. You can hang out on Times Square at 11 p.m. on a Friday night and not be afraid." Luntz concluded: "Imagine if you could do that for New York, what he could do for America" Read more

CNN Headline News aired Beck program with Graham's "whack" the Clintons comment four times in two days
On June 22, CNN Headline News re-aired the June 20 edition of the network's Glenn Beck program, which featured conservative talk radio show host Michael Graham discussing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (NY) campaign video that parodies the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos. As Media Matters for America documented, Graham asked Beck, "[S]eriously, Glenn, didn't you at some point want to see, like, Paulie Walnuts [a character on The Sopranos], somebody come in here and just whack them both right there?" Beck, while smiling, replied that he "did not want to see that." Read more

Sabato: "That every President from 1989 to 2017 may be a Bush or a Clinton is a national disgrace"
In his June 21 column, Larry J. Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia who is frequently featured as a nonpartisan political commentator by media outlets, wrote that the possibility of no one but Bushes and Clintons in the White House from 1989 to 2017 is a "national disgrace." Sabato stated: Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Good Morning America's Chris Cuomo interviews Coulter, promotes Godless
Syndicated columnist and right-wing pundit Ann Coulter appeared on the June 25 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, asserting that she "wouldn't insult gays by comparing them to [Democratic presidential candidate] John Edwards." Coulter added that at "about the same time" as the March 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference, where she said that she "can't really talk about" Edwards because "you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' " HBO host Bill Maher "was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack." Coulter continued: "So I've learned my lesson. If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he has been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." Read more

Coulter to appear on June 26 Hardball -- first time since "brilliant brain" called Gore a "total fag"
According to an advertisement during the June 24 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter will be returning to MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on June 26 -- her first appearance on the program since July 27, 2006, when she referred to former Vice President Al Gore as a "total fag." Since that appearance, she has also referred to former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) as a "faggot." The ad on Meet the Press said: "She's ignited controversy across America. But can Ann Coulter stand the heat in the Hardball hot seat, going head-to-head with Chris Matthews?" During Coulter's last appearance on Hardball, however, Matthews repeatedly complimented Coulter -- referring to her as writing "beautifully" and having a "brilliant brain." During the interview, Matthews asked Coulter, "How do you know that Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her statement the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But Al Gore -- total fag." Read more

Kurtz again cited report on journalists' donations without noting that only tiny fraction gave at all
In his June 25 "Media Notes" column in The Washington Post, Howard Kurtz cited an MSNBC report and wrote that journalists "overwhelmingly gave to Democrats," again without noting that the 143 journalists identified in the study as having made political contributions "are a tiny fraction of the roughly 100,000 staffers in newsrooms across the nation," as MSNBC itself stated. As Media Matters for America has noted, the people named in the MSNBC report represent less than two-tenths of 1 percent of news staff in this country. Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

George Will: Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign spoke "for people furious about the '60s tumults"
In his column in the July 2 edition of Newsweek, George F. Will described former Alabama Gov. George Wallace as an independent candidate who "succeed[ed] in giving an aggrieved minority a voice." According to Will, the "aggrieved minority" Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign spoke for was made up of "people furious about the '60s tumults." In fact, Wallace openly campaigned against civil rights legislation, and, in the words of The Washington Post's obituary of Wallace, ran a presidential campaign "in which he vilified blacks." Read more

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