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

CNN alleged "creative math" in Obama's fundraising before debunking the allegation
During the July 17 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer repeatedly teased a report on Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) fundraising practices by asserting that Obama is using "creative math" and suggesting he is "overselling his grassroots support" in reporting that 258,000 individuals donated to his presidential campaign in the first six months of 2007. Blitzer stated that this "new flap" is due to the fact that the campaign counted those who purchased campaign merchandise as donors. In his ensuing report, however, CNN correspondent Tom Foreman rebutted the suggestion that Obama engaged in "creative accounting," reporting that Obama is actually "obeying the law in all of this" because "[u]nlike most of his opponents, Obama sells his campaign merchandise directly, instead of outsourcing it," and the law requires that money paid for merchandise sold directly by the campaign be counted as a contribution. Foreman also refuted the claim that Obama is "overselling his grassroots support," reporting that "people who have bought campaign merchandise only count for about 1 percent of all the donors who have given Obama money." Read more

Media trot out gender stereotypes in discussion of Elizabeth Edwards' comments
After Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted a headline that read "GENDER BENDER: WIFE EDWARDS SAYS HILLARY 'BEHAVING LIKE A MAN," several media figures trotted out gender stereotypes about the leading Democratic presidential candidates while discussing comments former Sen. John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, made about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during an interview with Salon.com Editor-in-Chief Joan Walsh. Read more

Hannity asserted that "Whitewater and the death of Vince Foster" are "chapters remaining open" for Sen. Clinton
On the July 15 edition of Fox News' Hannity's America, discussing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, host Sean Hannity asserted: "[T]here are still many chapters remaining open from her time at the Rose Law Firm. Take Whitewater and the death of Vince Foster." In fact, Foster's death has been conclusively determined to have been a suicide. Moreover, after extensive investigations, three different independent counsels determined that there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges against the Clintons in the Whitewater matter. The July 15 segment was the latest edition of "The Clinton Chapters," a regular series on Hannity's America whose assertions Media Matters for America has repeatedly debunked. Read more

Tucker Carlson on Clinton: "[W]hen she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs"
On the July 16 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, discussing presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), producer Willie Geist described a Clinton doll being advertised at the website HillaryNutcracker.com that features "serrated stainless steel thighs that, well, crack nuts," according to Geist. He introduced the story by saying, "I think the metaphor in this next story, Tucker, is pretty clear. So I will just report the straight facts." He later asked, "What do you think they're saying about Hillary?" Host Tucker Carlson replied, "I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs." Read more

War in Iraq

Wash. Post's Murray: GOP won't support Iraq withdrawal because "[t]hey're just not willing to do that to the military"
On the July 18 edition of MSNBC Live, during a discussion of Senate Republicans' move blocking an up or down vote on a Democratic amendment aimed at withdrawing troops from Iraq, Washington Post staff writer Shailagh Murray asserted that "most Republicans" could not "get their heads around" what she described as the amendment's "hard and fast withdrawal date" and therefore would not support the measure because "[t]hey're just not willing to do that to the military." Murray did not explain what exactly the amendment would "do" to the military, nor did she explain how it represented a "hard and fast withdrawal date." Read more

With no objection from Novak, Scarborough falsely cleared Rove of leaking Plame's identity
On the July 18 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, during a discussion of the CIA leak case with conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, host Joe Scarborough falsely suggested that White House senior political adviser Karl Rove was not involved in the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. At the beginning of his conversation with Novak, Scarborough said the press "followed [the CIA leak investigation] like a pack of dogs talking about was it Rove, is it [Vice President Dick] Cheney, is it [President] Bush, who was it, who was it, and when they found out it was [then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard] Armitage, everybody kind of yawned and went on." Later in his conversation with Novak, Scarborough reminisced about "getting on my show [MSNBC's Scarborough Country] every night, saying, 'If Karl Rove leaked this information, he should be fired.' ... While we're all going through this process, you've got the special prosecutor, who already knows it's Dick Armitage." Read more

Race/Affirmative Action

On Morning Joe, John Ridley "hope[s]" Novak will "clarify" his Meet the Press comments
During the 6 a.m. ET and 8 a.m. ET hours of the July 18 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, commentator John Ridley said he was "curious" about syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak's July 15 assertion during a panel discussion on NBC's Meet the Press that, as Media Matters for America documented, "Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don't see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, 'OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before.' " During the 6 a.m. ET hour of the show, Ridley -- who wrote about Novak's comments in a July 17 post on the Huffington Post blog -- quoted Novak's statement and said: "I'm actually curious. I hope that Mr. Novak will clarify this." Ridley continued: "So are the Republicans hopeful for change? Or are they hopeful that when you have a black or a woman running on the Democratic ticket, a majority of Americans will go, 'Nah. I ain't voting for that.' " Novak was scheduled to appear during the 8 a.m. ET hour of the show. Read more

Terrorism

Couric did not question Chertoff about Al Qaeda "safehaven" in Pakistan
On the July 17 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, during an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff about the recently released National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), anchor Katie Couric did not ask Chertoff about the NIE's finding that Al Qaeda has "regenerated" several elements of its infrastructure, including a "safehaven" in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). A July 18 New York Times article reported that "[i]n identifying the main reasons for Al Qaeda's resurgence, intelligence officials and White House aides pointed the finger squarely at a hands-off approach toward the tribal areas by Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf," following a cease-fire deal between tribal leaders and the government that the Bush administration "reluctantly endorsed," according to the Times. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

O'Reilly defends comparison of Daily Kos to Nazis and KKK
During the July 17 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, discussing comments he made the previous night comparing the Daily Kos blog to the Nazi Party and to the Ku Klux Klan, host Bill O'Reilly asserted that "[t]he comparison is valid." O'Reilly was responding to a viewer who said in an email that O'Reilly "owe[d] me and thousands of others an apology," claiming that "you should not compare anything to the Nazis." O'Reilly replied: "Hate to say it, sir, that website traffics in hate, as do the Nazi websites. No difference." O'Reilly then read an email from another viewer who asserted: "I'm a black American and understand your argument against JetBlue, but I disagree with you comparing the Daily Kos to the KKK. The website simply hates the Bush administration." O'Reilly responded: "What does the pope have to do with the president, sir? How about Israel? The website sells hate, as does the KKK and the Nazis. The comparison is valid." Read more

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