Media Matters for America summary, August 17, 2007
 
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:03:02 -0400


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<p>Here are today's news items from <i>Media Matters for America</i>, 
click on the title or 'read more' to read the entirety of each story.</p>
<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/propaganda_noise_machine?src=other">Propaganda/Noise Machine</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170015?src=other">Fox's  Gibson accused Jon Stewart of "purposeful misunderstanding" over being  mocked</a></b><br />
On his radio show, John Gibson accused <em>The 
Daily Show</em> host Jon Stewart of a "purposeful misunderstanding" over 
comments Gibson and the program's executive producer, "Angry Rich," made mocking 
Stewart for emotional remarks he made on his show shortly after the September 
11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Gibson criticized Stewart for "think[ing] ... that 
he is a sacred cow and cannot, you know, be subject to an elbow now and 
then."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170015?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170012?src=other">Attacking "crackpot" <em>Media Matters, </em>Morgan now accuses "hypocritical cockroach" Soltz of violating "spirit" of Army rules</a></b><br />
In her WorldNetDaily
column, Melanie Morgan falsely asserted that she had "pointed out" in a column
the previous week that VoteVets.org's Jon Soltz is "violating the spirit of
Army rules and regulations" by engaging in political activism while serving in
the Army Reserve. In fact, Morgan specifically claimed that Soltz had committed
"a violation of the U.S. Military's Uniform Code of Military Justice"
by his actions. Morgan cited a military "press release" to back up her claim,
but the release states that the regulations it cited apply to "active-duty
service members."

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170012?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170009?src=other">On  <em>O'Reilly Factor,  </em>Goldberg compared  "liberal media" to Ku Klux Klan</a></b><br />
On the August 16 <em>O'Reilly Factor</em>, 
Fox News contributor Bernard Goldberg asserted that "news executives ... don't 
seem to care very much about intellectual diversity of opinion." "[T]hat's why 
journalists can boo ... cheer ... bash Christians, and they're not afraid of what 
will happen." He concluded: "[T]his isn't that much different from how the Ku 
Klux Klan operates." O'Reilly responded: "I think it's even beyond that, 
Bernie." As <em>Media Matters</em> has 
documented, O'Reilly has repeatedly compared Daily Kos to the Nazis and the Ku 
Klux Klan.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170009?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/2008_elections?src=other">2008 Elections</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170014?src=other">ABC News' Wright  simply asserted that Obama "seemed to criticize"  troops</a></b><br />
During an ABC News report on Sen. Barack Obama, David Wright clipped a recent 
statement by Obama in order to assert that he "seemed to criticize the performance of 
U.S. troops" there. But Wright left 
out the rest of Obama's sentence, which makes clear that Obama was criticizing 
the troop shortage in Afghanistan, rather than the troops' 
conduct.

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170014?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170013?src=other"><em>NY Times</em>' Seelye falsely claimed Clinton favorable ratings "never climbed higher" than 50 percent</a></b><br />
In a post on
the <em>New York Times</em>
blog The Caucus, Katharine Q. Seelye
falsely claimed that Hillary Rodham Clinton's "favorable ratings
reached a peak of 50 [percent] in 1998 during her husband's impeachment.
They have never climbed higher, as measured by The Times and CBS." In fact, a January 1999 CBS News poll found that Clinton had a favorable
rating of 55 percent. Additionally,
other polls from the same period found Clinton's favorable rating rising
as high as 67 percent, and polls from
other organizations show her favorable rating has topped 50 percent in 2007.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170013?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/lgbt_issues?src=other">LGBT Issues</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170005?src=other">O'Reilly: "I  think everybody's got  to relax on all this gay stuff"</a></b><br />
When a viewer email questioned his previous 
remarks that Bill Richardson "looked bad by saying he believed homosexuality was 
a choice," Fox News' Bill O'Reilly responded, "I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay 
stuff." But, as <em>Media Matters for 
America</em> has documented, O'Reilly has repeatedly demonstrated his own 
inability to "relax on all this gay stuff" with a history of controversial, 
misleading, and false claims about gays and lesbians.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170005?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170010?src=other">Olbermann named O'Reilly "Worst Person" for misrepresenting poll on gay rights group endorsements</a></b><br />
On <em>Countdown</em>,
Keith Olbermann named Bill O'Reilly the "winner" in his nightly "Worst Person in the
World" segment for falsely asserting, as <em>Media Matters for America</em> documented,
that a poll by "Pew
Research or something like that" "says that most Americans won't vote
for you if you get an endorsement by a gay rights group."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170010?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/terrorism?src=other">Terrorism</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170011?src=other">ABC's  Gibson ignored  Padilla's three-year detention without charges</a></b><br />
In reporting that Jose Padilla "was convicted ... of supporting terrorism," 
ABC's Charles Gibson stated that Padilla "was originally accused of plotting 
with Al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb, but that charge was 
dropped." In fact, Padilla was never "charge[d]" in relation to the alleged 
"dirty bomb" plot. Indeed, Padilla, a 
U.S. citizen, was held without 
charges for more than three years, a fact that Gibson did not mention.

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170011?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170007?src=other">CNN report ignored Bush administration's alleged responsibility for bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in 2001</a></b><br />
Reporting on U.S.
troops having returned to Afghanistan's
Tora Bora region,
CNN's Miles O'Brien and Barbara Starr noted that Osama bin Laden
had reportedly escaped capture there in late 2001, but not that, according to a
previous CNN report, the administration ignored requests for more troops,
allowing bin Laden to escape.

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170007?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/war_in_iraq?src=other">War in Iraq</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170008?src=other">Despite  previous smears, Matthews hosted  guest Mark Williams, who -- again -- smeared  Democrats</a></b><br />
On the August 16 <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20319074/" title="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20319074/">edition</a> of MSNBC&#39;s <i>Hardball</i>, radio host Mark Williams 
asserted that "every military advance we have made" in Iraq 
"has been ruined, one way or another, by some fat-mouthed congressman, usually a 
Democrat, opening his mouth on Capitol Hill." Williams also asserted: "I hope 
what we get is the truth from General [David] Petraeus about every 
step forward on the ground being made by the military since we started this being 
ruined, and two steps backwards being taken on Capitol Hill by the Democrats 
playing politics on this and plucking the pennies off the eyelids of the newly 
dead."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170008?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>




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