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

AP: Obama "scoffs at suggestions of Muslim leanings because he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia"
In a July 30 Associated Press article on the religious backgrounds of the 2008 presidential candidates, reporter Tom Raum wrote that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), "whose middle name is 'Hussein' -- scoffs at suggestions of Muslim leanings because he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. He is a member of the United Church of Christ." Raum gave no indication as to what "suggestions of Muslim leanings" encompass, but previous allegations that Obama was a practicing Muslim as a child in Indonesia and attended a "madrassa" have been refuted, respectively, by the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press itself. Read more

LA Times article contradicts author's analysis that Dems don't want to talk "about al Qaeda or terrorism"
In a July 29 article, Los Angeles Times staff writer Doyle McManus asserted: "It's easy to tell the difference between the two parties on foreign policy in this presidential campaign. The Democrats all want to talk about getting out of Iraq, but not so much about Al Qaeda or terrorism. The Republicans all want to talk about terrorism, but not so much about Iraq." McManus also reported a "chasm between the two parties' worldviews, one focused on battling the threat of radical Islam, the other on ending the war." McManus claimed that this was a "problem" that both parties face because "most Americans want answers to both questions, not just one or the other." But later in the article, McManus undermined his own statement that the Democratic presidential candidates "all want to talk about getting out of Iraq, but not so much about Al Qaeda or terrorism": He acknowledged that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) "talks about terrorism as a priority"; that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "also talks about terrorism, but puts his emphasis more strongly on diplomacy"; and that former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) "has staked out distinct positions on both Iraq and terrorism." Read more

On MSNBC, Wash. Post's Argetsinger claimed Clinton cleavage article "was actually very complimentary"
On the July 30 edition of MSNBC Live, during a discussion of Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Givhan's July 20 Washington Post Style section article that referred to the "cleavage on display" during Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) July 18 speech on the Senate floor, Post "Reliable Source" columnist Amy Argetsinger claimed that Givhan "was actually very complimentary of the clavicle display." Argetsinger added, "She said that it shows that Hillary Clinton is more comfortable in her own skin." But while Givhan did write that "[s]howing cleavage ... does suggest a certain confidence and physical ease," she also described Clinton's appearance as "unnerving" and wrote that "it was more like catching a man with his fly unzipped. Just look away!" Later on the program, MSNBC compared the "cleavage" purportedly displayed by both Clinton and British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith -- a comparison originally made in Givhan's article -- by airing a split screen of the two speaking for approximately 25 seconds. Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Wash. Post reported Republican claim of "do-nothing" Congress, ignored GOP "obstructionist" strategy
In a July 30 article discussing a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, Post staff writer Jonathan Weisman wrote that negative congressional approval ratings "have buoyed Republicans as they attack what they call a Democratic 'Post Office Congress' -- unable to accomplish much more than renaming federal buildings" and that "[o]ne GOP tactic is to slap a 'do-nothing' label on Democrats." Weisman went on to quote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claiming that Democrats have "apparently squandered whatever political capital they may have achieved with the American people last November the 7th in a record short period of time." But while Weisman noted that Democrats "have passed half" of their "6 for '06" domestic legislative agenda, he left out the role of Senate Republicans in blocking Democratic initiatives, which they have done at an unprecedented rate -- apparently as part of what Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) has described as an "obstructionist" strategy. Read more

Kurtz allowed political appointee Cullum to compare Bush U.S. attorney firings to Clinton's without challenge*
On the July 29 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz included conservative radio talk show host and Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member Blanquita Cullum on a panel to "talk about the Bush administration," without emphasizing that Cullum was appointed by President Bush to serve on the BBG. Except for approximately five seconds of on-screen text, Cullum was not identified as a Bush appointee, even while she defended the Bush administration's controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys by attacking former President Bill Clinton's administration.* Further, while discussing the controversy surrounding apparent contradictions in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' testimony relating to the ongoing U.S. attorney scandal, Kurtz allowed Cullum to make a misleading comparison in defense of the U.S. attorneys scandal -- comparing them to President Clinton's removal of 93 U.S. attorneys when he took office. Read more

Domestic spying

Wash. Post said Bush wiretapping program covered calls where "one party had been tied to al-Qaeda"
A July 30 Washington Post article asserted as fact that the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program -- which the article referred to as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" -- "monitor[ed] telephone calls between the United States and overseas in which one party had been tied to al-Qaeda." However, as Media Matters has repeatedly noted (here, here, here, and here), several news articles in 2006 reported that the warrantless eavesdropping program was not limited to calls in which one party was "tied to al-Qaeda," but that it also ensnared thousands of Americans with no ties to any terrorist group. For instance, on November 25, 2006, The New York Times reported that "government officials involved" in the wiretapping program "have said that it has often led to dead ends and to people with no clear links to terrorism." Read more

Media Ethics

UPDATED: Three journalists listed as AHIP speakers, then disappear from website following Kos diary
FURTHER UPDATE (July 30, 10:56 a.m. ET): Leading Authorities Inc. president Mark French sent a letter dated July 27 to Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), taking responsibility for the appearance of the journalists' names on the AHIP Speakers Network list. French wrote: Read more

War in Iraq

Purporting to document Pollack's evolving views on Iraq, CNN left out his original gung-ho Iraq "tune"
During the July 30 edition of CNN Newsroom, anchor Heidi Collins introduced Kenneth Pollack of The Brookings Institution by saying that Pollack "has been a vocal critic of the administration's handling of the [Iraq] war, but he says that an eight-day visit has changed his outlook a bit." Collins also said that Pollack's "tune is changing a bit" with respect to the war. Pollack went on to discuss how a recent visit to Iraq has left him "more optimistic" about the war. However, while focusing on Pollack's criticisms of the "handling" of the war, Collins failed to note that Pollack was an influential proponent of the Iraq invasion before it happened, leaving viewers with the impression that Pollack was a war opponent who has become more supportive of the war. Pollack's 2002 book on the subject was titled The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq (Random House). Read more

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