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

Defending Givhan's cleavage coverage, Harwood asserted "calculati[ng]" Clinton knew "what she was communicating by her dress"
On the July 29 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood declared his intent to "defend" Robin Givhan's July 20 Washington Post Style section article which referred to the "cleavage on display" during Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) July 18 speech on the Senate floor. Harwood then asserted: "When you look at the calculation that goes into everything that Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil." As Media Matters for America has documented media figures frequently portray Clinton as "calculating" or overly ambitious, while rarely offering actual examples or support. Read more

LA Times, AP asserted that Edwards tax plan allows GOP to call him an "incorrigible tax raiser[]," "tax-and spender"
On July 26, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards unveiled part of his economic plan, which involves cutting taxes for low- and middle-income Americans by, in part, raising capital gains taxes for those making over $250,000 per year and repealing the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $200,000 per year. However, in their reports on Edwards' plan, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press asserted that his proposal represents a political risk because it would allow Republicans to portray him as an "incorrigible tax raiser[]" or a "tax-and-spender in the mold of Walter Mondale." Neither article explained how offering a plan to provide tax cuts and incentives for a majority of Americans would leave him open to such criticism. Read more

War in Iraq

On Chris Matthews Show, Borger falsely suggested Democratic Iraq proposals involve "withdraw[ing]" all troops "overnight"
On the July 29 edition of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, U.S. News & World Report columnist Gloria Borger falsely suggested that Democratic proposals for troop withdrawal from Iraq involve "withdraw[ing] overnight. "While discussing what NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell described as the "enormous costs of getting out" of Iraq, Borger asserted that "this is such a problem right now for the Democrats ... [b]ecause privately, many of them will say ... that you can't withdraw overnight ... that it would be dangerous for us to do that." O'Donnell agreed, saying, "Mechanically, you can't do it." But Borger offered no examples of a leading Democrat who wants to immediately withdraw all troops from Iraq. To the contrary, the withdrawal proposal recently supported by Senate Democrats would have reduced troop levels in Iraq over the next nine months and would have retained residual forces in Iraq to conduct limited operations.

As Media Matters for America has noted, the recently debated amendment to the fiscal year 2008 defense authorization bill -- offered by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) -- calls for a "reduction" of U.S. forces in Iraq but also stipulates that the United States maintain a "limited" troop presence there to protect U.S. and coalition infrastructure, train Iraqi security forces, and conduct counterterrorism operations. Under the amendment, the reduction in U.S. forces would "be implemented as part of a comprehensive diplomatic, political, and economic strategy that includes sustained engagement with Iraq's neighbors and the international community for the purpose of working collectively to bring stability to Iraq." The Levin-Reed amendment further stipulates that "[t]he Secretary of Defense shall complete the transition of United States forces to a limited presence and missions as described" in the legislation by April 30, 2008. Republicans ultimately blocked an up-or-down vote on the amendment. Read more

MSNBC graphic, report conflated "Al Qaeda" and "Al Qaeda in Iraq"
On the July 29 edition of MSNBC Live, during a report on the "tensions" between Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, an on-screen graphic read: "Iraq: Fighting Al Qaeda." During the segment, NBC News correspondent Jane Arraf further reported that Petraeus "is saying that the U.S. has made significant gains against Al Qaeda," adding: "[H]e says that in key areas where they have declared the states -- capitols of their Islamic state, they have managed to get rid of key leaders, but he warns that there is still a significant threat, and they are able to carry out significant attacks." However, in asserting that the U.S. military in Iraq is fighting Al Qaeda and uncritically quoting Petreaus making the same claim, MSNBC conflated the Sunni insurgent group "Al Qaeda in Iraq" with the group responsible for the 9-11 attacks, as the Bush administration has repeatedly done. Moreover, Arraf's paraphrasing of Petraeus' comments left the impression that he said "the U.S. has made significant gains against Al Qaeda" worldwide -- an assertion contradicted by the most recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which assessed that "the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability" and established a "safehaven" in Pakistan. Read more

Domestic spying

CBS Evening News continues inadequate coverage of 2004 wiretapping showdown
The CBS Evening News has devoted approximately 1 minute and 44 seconds of airtime to questions surrounding whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has testified truthfully in his numerous appearances before Congress in recent months. Most recently, on the July 26 edition of the Evening News, anchor Katie Couric reported without elaboration that: "FBI Director Robert Mueller is now contradicting Gonzales' testimony about a 2004 hospital room meeting with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. Gonzales has said the meeting was not related to a secret eavesdropping program. But today, Mueller testified that it was." Couric provided no further details on the controversy surrounding the 2004 hospital confrontation involving the Justice Department, the FBI, and the White House over the National Security Agency's (NSA) "secret eavesdropping program;" nor did she mention that Mueller's testimony affirmed former deputy attorney general James B. Comey's May 15 congressional testimony about the incident. Read more

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