Media Matters for America summary, August 22, 2007
 
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:03:05 -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/2008_elections?src=other">2008 Elections</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220016?src=other">CBS' Storm,  Schieffer cropped  Michelle  Obama  quote,  claimed  "it  may  be  up  to  the  wives  to  criticize"  Clinton</a></b><br />
On CBS' <em>The Early Show</em>, Hannah 
Storm told Bob 
Schieffer that "[a] lot of people ... took" Michelle Obama's 
statement "as a slam at [Sen.] Hillary Clinton," adding: "She and her husband 
both said, 'Not so,' but there is a school of thought that says with a woman 
running for the Democratic presidential nominee that it may be up to the wives 
to criticize her because the men can't." At no point did either Storm or 
Schieffer provide Mrs. Obama's full comments, in which she talked about her own 
family and did not refer generally or specifically to any other candidates.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220016?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220011?src=other">CNN's Sylvester cropped Michelle Obama's quote; Flanders claimed "we know" she attacked Clinton</a></b><br />
On <em>Lou Dobbs
Tonight</em>, guest host Lisa Sylvester aired a clip of Michelle Obama saying: "Our view is that
if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House." Air America Radio
host Laura Flanders later agreed that
the comment "was a swipe at Hillary Clinton."
Sylvester, however, did not provide Obama's full comments on the topic,
in which she talked about her own family and did not refer to another candidate.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220011?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220008?src=other">MSNBC's Shuster misrepresented Clinton's assessment of Anbar</a></b><br />
On <em>Hardball</em>,
David Shuster falsely suggested
that in a speech to the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton overlooked local Sunni
leaders' cooperation with coalition forces in Al Anbar Province and instead attributed
the progress there to President Bush's escalation strategy. However, in the speech, Clinton linked the improvements in Al Anbar to new
"tactics" -- not Bush's escalation of the war.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220008?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220010?src=other"><em>Fox  &amp; Friends </em>on  Michelle Obama's comments: "The Claws Come Out"</a></b><br />
Fox News' Gretchen Carlson asserted that Michelle Obama was "taking off the 
gloves and letting loose the claws" in making what "some say ... is a personal 
attack on Hillary Clinton." Later, co-host Brian Kilmeade stated that Obama 
"said ... 'If you can't run your own house, then you can't run the White House.' " 
Kilmeade then asserted, "Many people are saying that she's talking about Hillary 
Clinton." And on-screen text said, "The Claws Come Out: Mrs. Obama Aims at Sen. 
Clinton." But Kilmeade and 
Carlson did not provide the rest of Obama's quote, in which she talked 
about herself and her family -- not any other candidate 
-- referring to their 
efforts to balance campaigning and family life and ensure that their children 
will continue to "come first."

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220010?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220013?src=other"><em>Wash.  Post</em>  falsely suggested Obama, Clinton made inconsistent statements on Iraq troop buildup</a></b><br />
The August 22 edition of <i>The Washington 
Post</i>&#39;s 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082102026.html" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082102026.html">The Trail</a>, "A 
Daily 
Diary of Campaign 2008," cropped an August 21 comment by Sen. 
Barack Obama (D-IL) on the troop buildup in Iraq -- that "[i]f we put 30,000 
additional troops into Baghdad, it will quell some of the violence short-term" 
-- and juxtaposed it with his January 5 comment -- that "an escalation of troop 
levels in Iraq was a mistake and that we need a political accommodation rather 
than a military approach to the sectarian violence there" -- to falsely suggest 
that the two statements were inconsistent. In fact, Obama reiterated his 
position from January on August 21, but the <i>Post</i> omitted the entirety of his comments: 
After saying what the <i>Post</i> quoted 
him saying, Obama added: "It [a troop buildup] doesn&#39;t change the 
underlying assessment, which is that there is not a military solution to the 
political dynamic in Iraq." 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220013?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/200708220005?src=other">Carlson  questioned servicemen's op-ed on Iraq war, but  not Pollack's views</a></b><br />
MSNBC's Tucker Carlson questioned the decision by members of the U.S. Army 82nd 
Airborne Division to write an op-ed, which asserted that "[t]he claim that we are increasingly 
in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a 
flawed, American-centered framework." Carlson did not mention that 
the op-ed was a response to assessments made in a previous op-ed by Michael 
O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack; and when he interviewed Pollack, he did not 
challenge Pollack's opinions on whether progress is being made in Iraq.

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220005?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220017?src=other"><em>Wash.  Post</em> suggested pro-Iraq war ad  campaign is an "attack"  on Democrats, despite its reported  GOP focus</a></b><br />
A <em>Washington Post</em> article 
reported that the pro-Iraq war 
campaign by the nonprofit organization Freedom's Watch is part of a "burst of 
effort" that "has been striking, if only 
because Democrats left for their August recess confident that Republicans would 
be on the defensive by now. Instead, the GOP has gone on the attack." However, 
two analyses of the 
Freedom's 
Watch ad buy concluded that some 
90 percent of those members of Congress targeted by the campaign 
are Republicans.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220017?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220004?src=other">AP noted GOP hype of O'Hanlon/Pollack op-ed, ignored U.S. Army servicemen's op-ed in response</a></b><br />
An Associated Press "analysis"
of the politics surrounding the Bush administration's upcoming Iraq war
progress report noted that Republicans "trumpeted a July 30 op-ed article in
the New York Times"<strong> </strong>by Brookings
Institution scholars Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack in favor of
continuing the Bush administration's Iraq war escalation. However, the AP
did not mention an August 19 <em>Times </em>op-ed
by seven U.S. Army infantrymen and noncommissioned officers currently serving
in Iraq, in which the authors wrote that "we are skeptical of recent press
coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has
neglected the mounting civil, political, and social unrest we see every day."
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220004?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/polling?src=other">Polling</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220015?src=other">Reuters article  uncritically quoted "expert" who said Dems face "nightmare scenario" on  Iraq</a></b><br />
A Reuters article 
uncritically quoted Matthew Woessner, a professor at Pennsylvania State 
University-Harrisburg, saying 
that Democrats face a potential "nightmare scenario" over Iraq if "the sum total 
of the pressures from their constituency groups, are out of step with mainstream 
America." The article 
didn't cite any polls to back up Woessner's claim; in fact, polls show that a majority of 
Americans oppose the war in Iraq and believe that some or all troops should 
be withdrawn from Iraq.

<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220015?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220007?src=other"><em>Wash. Times</em>' soft bigotry of low expectations -- cites Bush's "high" 45% approval on dealing with terrorism</a></b><br />
In an August 22 <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070822/NATION/108220047/1002" title="http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070822/NATION/108220047/1002">article</a> 
on the results of a just-released Gallup poll, <i>The Washington Times</i> reported that "[v]oters 
gave Mr. Bush high marks on dealing with terrorism." The August 13-16 <a href="http://mediamatters.org//rd?http://www.galluppoll.com/content/default.aspx?ci=28459" title="http://www.galluppoll.com/content/default.aspx?ci=28459">poll</a>, which 
had a margin of error 
of +/- 3 percentage points, found that President Bush has a 45-percent approval 
rating on the issue of terrorism, while 52 percent disapproved of how he is 
handling terrorism. Moreover, Bush&#39;s approval rating on terrorism, which the 
<i>Times</i> called "high marks," "is 
just one point above his low terrorism approval rating of 44% from January," 
according to Gallup. 
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220007?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/domestic_spying?src=other">Domestic spying</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220006?src=other">On <em>Special Report</em>, Hume told the truth on  warrantless wiretaps, then corrected himself</a></b><br />
On <em>Special Report</em>, Brit Hume 
reported that "[t]he Senate Judiciary Committee's latest 
deadline for the White House to comply with its subpoena for documents relating 
to warrantless -- allegedly warrantless wiretaps has come and gone." Contrary to 
Hume's assertion, administration officials have admitted that the National 
Security Agency has engaged in warrantless wiretapping.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220006?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>

<h1><a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/national_security_foreign_policy?src=other">National Security/Foreign Policy</a></h1>
<p><b><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220014?src=other">CNN's  Malveaux said "conspiracy theorists" talk about North American Union --  what about Dobbs?</a></b><br />
Discussing President Bush's denial that the federal government has plans for a 
"North American Union," CNN's Suzanne Malveaux said Bush's denial followed "a 
lot of talk in the blogosphere and conspiracy theorists." But Malveaux did not 
note that CNN's own Lou Dobbs, on whose show Malveaux regularly provides news 
reports, has repeatedly hyped the possibility of a North American Union. 


<br />
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220014?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></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/200708220012?src=other">Limbaugh revived concept of Clinton's "testicle lockbox"</a></b><br />
On the August 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated
radio show, <a href="http://mediamatters.org//issues_topics/people/rushlimbaugh?src=other">Rush Limbaugh</a>
played audio clips from
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton&#39;s (D-NY) August 20 speech to the Veterans of
Foreign Wars (VFW) and labeled her position on Iraq "the &#39;no
onions&#39; strategy from the woman
with the testicle lockbox." As <i>Media
Matters for America</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org//items/200508260005?src=other">documented</a>, Limbaugh has used the
expression "testicle lockbox" on numerous occasions while
discussing Clinton.
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220012?src=other" class="read">Read more</a></p>




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