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

NBC's O'Donnell: Edwards "keeps hoping that [voters] still want a return to a Southern white man"
On the August 5 edition of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, NBC White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell asserted without evidence that former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) "keeps hoping that they'll [voters] still want a return to a Southern white man." In fact, at a July 23 Democratic presidential debate, Edwards said, "[A]nybody who's considering not voting for Senator [Barack] Obama [IL] because he's black or for Senator [Hillary Rodham] Clinton [NY] because she's a woman, I don't want their vote." Read more

Gibson radio show executive producer: Edwards "whored his wife's cancer as a fundraising gimmick"
On the August 3 edition of Fox News host John Gibson's nationally syndicated radio program, the show's executive producer, who goes by the name "Angry Rich" on the program, claimed Democratic presidential candidate former Sen. John Edwards (NC) "whored his wife's cancer as a fundraising gimmick." He also went on to call him "a fraud" and "a pansy." Gibson referred to Edwards as "the Breck Girl," "Silky," and "the biggest fraud running for president." Gibson and "Angry Rich" were attacking Edwards for saying that Democratic candidates should give back campaign contributions from News Corp., the parent company of Fox News Channel, while accepting advance and expense money from HarperCollins, another News Corp. division that had published a book written by Edwards; Gibson played an audio clip of Edwards stating that money was donated to charity. They also attacked Edwards for his refusal earlier this year to participate in a debate co-sponsored by Fox News. Read more

Once again, Fineman looks at Republican failures and sees problems for ... Democrats
On the August 5 edition of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Newsweek chief political correspondent Howard Fineman stated that the political environment for the 2008 election favors Democrats, but said that the Democratic Party faces disaster if it cannot come up with a long-term plan for fighting terrorism. Using a historical reference he has employed before, Fineman asserted that if Democrats cannot win the 2008 election, they "deserve to go the way of the Whigs, which is a political party that disappeared ... because it couldn't deal with the biggest issue of the time, which was slavery." He added, "[T]he issue this time that could render the Democrats useless to history ... is terrorism" and that "unless the Democrats can figure out an answer on foreign policy, then there is a chance that they could blow it." Fineman did not explain why, given the Bush administration's record on foreign policy, it is the Democrats who face extinction over national security concerns. Media Matters for America has documented Fineman's pattern of noting Republican failures and setbacks and then claiming that Democrats will face political problems. Read more

Debate's "brightest moment"? Few media note that even while attacking Obama, Romney agreed on substance
In covering the August 5 Republican presidential debate on ABC's This Week, many print media outlets reported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's attack -- in what the Associated Press' Mike Glover referred to as one of the debate's "brightest moments" -- on Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) recent foreign policy statements: "[I]n one week, he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week." Romney was referring to Obama's statement in an August 1 speech that "[i]f we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and [Pakistani] President [Pervez] Musharraf won't act, we will." Giuliani also criticized Obama, claiming that Obama "didn't express" his comments "the right way," adding: "I think the senator, if he could just say it over again, might want to say that we would encourage Musharraf to allow us to do it if we thought he couldn't accomplish it." But in no case did these reports note, as debate moderator George Stephanopoulos did, that when Giuliani was asked about Obama's comments on the day of the speech, he did not criticize Obama, but rather echoed his position: "[W]ould that be an option that's on the table, which is we have a chance to catch bin Laden and we have got to do it ourselves because we're not sure if somebody is going to do it correctly -- yeah, I think I would take that option." And, in several cases, the media outlets did not report that even amid their criticism, both Romney and Giuliani affirmed during the debate that they would retain the option of acting against Osama bin Laden over Pakistan's objections, if necessary. Read more

NBC's Mitchell uncritically aired Romney's "Dr. Strangelove" attack on Obama
During a segment on the August 6 broadcast of NBC's Today, NBC senior foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell uncritically aired Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's claim during an August 5 debate aired on ABC's This Week that Sen. Barack Obama "went from going to sit down to tea with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week." His reference to Dr. Strangelove was an attack on Obama apparently for saying during an August 1 speech that "[i]f we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets" in Pakistan, "and [Pakistani] President [Pervez] Musharraf won't act, we will." In fact, in the course of the very same debate, Romney and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani (NY) both acknowledged that they agree that a president should retain the option of attacking terrorists within the territory of an ally. Read more

Ethics

USA Today editorial failed to identify jailed members of Congress as Republicans
An August 6 USA Today editorial called the recently passed congressional ethics bill "the most far-reaching since Watergate" but claimed that the bill fell short in "two major areas": that earmarks would be disclosed "[b]ut they wouldn't necessarily be easy to find and connect to sponsors," and that "Congress failed to add independent panels to judge lawmakers' conduct." The editorial said further: "Never mind that two high-profile House members went to jail in the past 17 months in scandals that never even piqued the interest of the current House ethics committee." But the paper failed to identify the "two high-profile House members" as Republicans -- former Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (CA) and Bob Ney (OH). Indeed, the online version of the editorial links to an August 2 Associated Press article on the passage of the bill in the Senate, which reported that Cunningham is "in prison on corruption charges." Read more

Propaganda/Noise Machine

Olbermann named Denver radio host "Worst Person" for mischaracterizing Gen. Clark's comment about Tillman
During the August 3 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Denver radio host "Gunny" Bob Newman the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for, as Colorado Media Matters documented, mischaracterizing retired Gen. Wesley Clark's comments on the July 26 edition of Countdown about the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Olbermann quoted Newman saying, "Wes Clark is claiming that former NFL player turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman may have been murdered on orders from the president of the United States. I wish I was making this up, but the thing is Clark made the claim on live TV on MSNBC. And we have him on video and we have the transcripts of the appearance to boot." Olbermann responded: "Maybe in that VCR in your mind, pal, but not in reality. You are making it up. I asked General Clark about the report that investigators weren't even permitted to inquire if Pat Tillman was murdered. He said that the cover-up of whatever really happened to the American hero must have gone up the chain of command." Read more

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