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.

War in Iraq

NBC, LA Times quoted Bush claiming Al Qaeda is our "major enemy in Iraq," ignored experts' rebuttal
On the July 5 edition of NBC's Today, NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell said that President Bush's response to calls for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is "Remember Al Qaeda," and then showed a video clip of Bush's statement during a July 4 speech that "a major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States" on September 11, 2001. O'Donnell did not report that, according to a June 28 McClatchy Newspapers article, "U.S. military and intelligence officials" dispute Bush's repeated assertion that Al Qaeda is the source of much of the violence perpetrated in Iraq. McClatchy reported that these officials' "say that Iraqis with ties to al Qaida are only a small fraction of the threat to American troops," and that "[t]he group known as al Qaida in Iraq didn't exist before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, didn't pledge its loyalty to al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden until October 2004 and isn't controlled by bin Laden or his top aides." Read more

Boortz falsely claimed Clinton was convicted of perjury
On the July 5 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing President Bush's commutation of former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's jail sentence, Neal Boortz falsely claimed that "Scooter Libby and Bill Clinton got sentenced and convicted for exactly the same crime." As Media Matters for America has previously noted, Clinton was not indicted on criminal charges of perjury by independent counsel Robert Ray or his predecessor, Kenneth Starr. By contrast, a federal jury convicted Libby on four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton subsequently sentenced him to 30 months in federal prison. Read more

Novak column on Libby recycled "no underlying crime" misinformation
In a July 4 column about President Bush's decision to commute the prison sentence of former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak claimed that although former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the original source for Novak's July 16, 2003, column revealing Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA employment, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald "plowed ahead with an inquiry that produced obstruction of justice and perjury charges against Libby, though there was no underlying crime." He added: "Why did Fitzgerald pursue the investigation when he knew Armitage was the leaker and had determined there was no evidence of a crime?" But as Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, while Libby did not leak Plame's identity to Novak, he was reportedly the original source of the information for at least two other reporters during the summer of 2003. And as Fitzgerald clarified in a May 25 memorandum regarding Libby's sentencing: "The investigation was never limited to disclosure of Ms. Wilson's CIA affiliation to Mr. Novak; rather, from the outset the investigation sought to determine who disclosed information about Ms. Wilson to various reporters, including -- but not limited to -- Mr. Novak." Novak's suggestion that, legally, Armitage's leak of Plame's identity was the only disclosure that mattered also ignores that the statutes in question do not specify that the identity of a covert operative has to be published for a crime to have been committed. Read more

AP, NY Times, Wash. Post uncritically reported Bush claim that terrorists "would follow us here" from Iraq
In articles on President Bush's July 4 speech to the 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post uncritically reported Bush's oft-used defense of his Iraq war policy -- that Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq will attack Americans inside the United States if U.S. troops withdraw "before the job is done." Yet none of the articles noted that security and terrorism experts have challenged Bush's view, despite several recent news reports on this dispute, including a March 18 Post article. Read more

Spinonymous sourcing: NY Times cited anonymous Republicans on "clinical" Libby deliberations
In a July 4 New York Times article on the "long debate" the White House claimed to have engaged in before President Bush commuted former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 30-month prison term, reporters Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg reported that the process "was almost clinical" and involved a "detailed focus on the facts of the case," citing "the accounts of two Republican allies of the White House" who chose to remain anonymous "[b]ecause the deliberations were so closely held." The article quoted one of the anonymous Republicans saying: "They were digging deeply into the substance of the charges against him, and the defense for him." But Stolberg and Rutenberg offered no explanation of why a Republican ally of the Bush administration should be granted anonymity simply to back up the White House's claims regarding the Libby commutation. Read more

CNN's Romans called George H.W. Bush "judicious with pardons," omitted Iran-Contra controversy
On the July 3 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, discussing President George W. Bush's decision to commute former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 30-month prison term, CNN correspondent Christine Romans asserted that President George H.W. Bush "was judicious with pardons" because he granted "only 74." Romans compared the elder Bush to President Clinton, who "pardoned 396 criminals, most famously fugitive financier Marc Rich and his own brother." Romans continued: "President [George W.] Bush is being assailed by Democrats for commutation of Libby's sentence just as Clinton was criticized by conservatives for his pardon of Marc Rich." However, in contrasting George H.W. Bush's "judicious" exercise of executive clemency with Clinton and the current President Bush, Romans ignored that the elder Bush was also "criticized" and "assailed" for his decision to pardon six Reagan administration officials who were involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, some of whom might have given testimony concerning Bush's own role in that operation. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Will NBC ask Todd about prediction that Bush approval would top 50 percent by July 4?
Before the November 2006 midterm elections, NBC News political director Chuck Todd predicted several times that if the Democrats won "control of Congress" and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) became speaker of the House, then President Bush's "approval rating will be over 50 percent by the Fourth of July next year." In fact, as of July 4, 2007, Bush's approval ratings are far below 50 percent. Indeed, a recent analysis by the weblog RealClearPolitics.com of national polls conducted between June 11 and June 28 placed Bush's average approval rating at 30.5 percent. Will NBC News question Todd about his inaccurate prediction? Read more

Tomasky review further rebuts Gerth/Van Natta report of long-time plan for Hillary Clinton presidency
In a review of Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.'s Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Little, Brown & Co., June 2007) in the July 19 issue of The New York Review of Books, Michael Tomasky highlighted a May 30 written statement (provided in full below) by historian Taylor Branch that undermines Gerth and Van Natta's public defenses of a disputed allegation contained in their book -- that after President Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he and Hillary Clinton updated their alleged "twenty-year project" to include "eight years as president for him, then eight years for her." Read more

2008 Elections

CNN's Schneider on McCain: "The straight talker is back"
During the July 3 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (AZ): "The straight talker is back. And he's hoping to turn into the comeback kid." As Media Matters for America has documented, CNN and The Situation Room have repeatedly touted McCain's "straight talk" -- the theme of his failed 2000 presidential bid -- despite his numerous inconsistencies on issues ranging from the Iraq war and the Bush administration to his opinion of conservative Christians. Read more

Polling

Fox & Friends guest claimed young voters "more conservative" on abortion, "racial preferences"
On the July 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, during a discussion of a June 15-23 New York Times/ CBS News/ MTV poll, co-host Brian Kilmeade did not challenge the assertion by Young America's Foundation spokesman Jason Mattera that "young people, as opposed to the general public, are more conservative on the issue of abortion and racial preferences. ... [T]hey'd rather ban abortion and they are opposed to racial preferences as well." In fact, Mattera's claim regarding abortion is not supported by the Times/ CBS News/ MTV poll discussed during the segment, which surveyed 17-29 year-olds. As a June 27 New York Times article about the poll noted, respondents' "views on abortion mirror those of the public at large: 24 percent said it should not be permitted at all, while 38 percent said it should be made available but with greater restrictions. Thirty-seven percent said it should be generally available." Read more

Lou Dobbs Tonight guest claimed Libby "had nothing to do with" leaking Plame's identity
On the July 3 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, while discussing President Bush's commutation of former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence, conservative radio host Steve Malzberg told guest host Kitty Pilgrim that Bush "did the right thing" in commuting Libby's sentence, adding that Libby "had nothing do with" leaking the identity of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. However, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, Libby reportedly disclosed Plame's CIA employment to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller before Plame's employment was publicly revealed by syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak in a July 14, 2003, column. Read more

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