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.

War in Iraq

LA Times reported Bush's Iraq trip was "to see" progress with "own eyes," but didn't note he never left base
In a September 3 article on President Bush's trip to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, Los Angeles Times staff writer Julian E. Barnes uncritically reported Bush's statement that "[t]he secretaries and I have come here today to see with our own eyes the remarkable changes that are taking place in Anbar province." But Barnes did not note, as The Washington Post reported in a September 3 article, that "[a]lthough Bush touted the substantial political and security progress made in Anbar, he did not leave the safety of the base Monday to see those changes firsthand." Read more

CNN's Yellin did not challenge McConnell by noting GAO report also mandated by law
CNN's Jessica Yellin uncritically reported Sen. Mitch McConnell's claim that a recently released report on the Iraq war by the Government Accountability Office was "not equal" in significance to an upcoming report from the Bush administration because the administration's report "is written into law." In fact, the GAO report is required by the same law as the president's report.
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NY Times uncritically quoted Coleman's criticism of GAO Iraq report for not including August data
The New York Times reported Sen. Norm Coleman criticizing the Government Accountability Office's newly released progress report on Iraqi benchmarks for not including data regarding sectarian violence in Iraq from August. However, the Times failed to note GAO's David Walker's response to Coleman indicating that the GAO "asked [the military] for, but did not receive, the information through the end of August" and that even though military officials "were unable to give us the data through August ...we obtained their views for where the situation was through as of August 30th." Read more

Couric did not challenge Petraeus' assertion that violence in Iraq has fallen "dramatically"
Katie Couric did not challenge Gen. David Petraeus' assertion during an interview that "if you look at the country as a whole ... the number of ethno-sectarian deaths, you name it, the number of incidents has been reduced dramatically" in Iraq. Couric failed to note the conclusion reached by a recent progress report by the Government Accountability Office on Iraqi benchmarks that "[i]t is unclear whether sectarian violence in Iraq has decreased;" the report also stated that "the average number of daily attacks against civilians remained about the same over the last six months." Read more

NY Times did not challenge Bush claim that terrorists "would attack us at home" if U.S. withdraws from Iraq
An article in The New York Times reported President Bush's assertion that withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq would "embolden our enemies and make it more likely that they would attack us at home," without noting expert opinion that a U.S. troop withdrawal is unlikely to result in a terrorist attack on the United States. Read more

Fox News' Hume, Baier uncritically aired Bush's claim on troop withdrawals
On Special Report, Bret Baier uncritically aired President Bush's statement that "[i]f the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces" in Iraq. But neither Baier nor host Brit Hume noted that regardless of the level of security in Iraq -- as Wendell Goler reported on Special Report the previous day -- Bush's "military advisers have told him he can't keep the current deployment in Iraq beyond April or the Army itself will suffer." Read more

2008 Elections

Politico's Martin touted Giuliani's "halo of Sept. 11 and the celebrity that comes with the heroics"
In an article on Republican candidates, the Politico's Jonathan Martin claimed that the reason Rudy Giuliani has not "stopped being 'America's Mayor' " and become "just another presidential candidate" is "in part ... because he still enjoys the halo of Sept. 11 and the celebrity that comes with the heroics." However, Giuliani's performance before, during, and after 9-11 has been questioned and criticized. Read more

NY Times editorial criticizing "bundlers" didn't mention Fabian
A New York Times editorial criticizing presidential candidates' use of "bundlers" stated that "Senator Hillary Clinton [D-NY] has been burned twice lately by so-called bundlers," and made apparent references to Clinton bundlers Norman Hsu and Sant Chatwal. The Times went on to note that "[o]ther candidates in both parties have been similarly embarrassed" but offered no further details and made no mention of Alan B. Fabian, a Maryland bundler for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign who was indicted last month on fraud and money laundering charges. Read more

Wash. Post's Solomon blamed editor for deletion about GOP fundraiser
During a washingtonpost.com discussion, when John Solomon was asked why a recent article he co-wrote on fundraisers did not mention Alan B. Fabian -- Mitt Romney's recently indicted former national finance co-chairman -- he did not mention Fabian but claimed that the article included a passage on Robert Lichfield, another Romney fundraiser facing several lawsuits, but that "it was edited out," adding that this "sometimes happens ... to make room for late-breaking news."
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Propaganda/Noise Machine

LA Times notes Dem criticism of Path to 9/11, but not its own review's
A Los Angeles Times article on the DVD release of ABC's The Path to 9/11 reported that the original miniseries "ignited a political firestorm, almost entirely from high-profile Democratic leaders who viewed its account ... as a right-wing hatchet job," overlooking factual inaccuracies in the film and sharp discrepancies between the film's account of certain events and the findings laid out in the 9-11 Commission's report, upon which ABC claimed the miniseries was based. Those inaccuracies and discrepancies were pointed out in the Times' own review of The Path to 9/11, which also noted the film's "partisan politics" and its "hopeless muddle of the line between fact and 'dramatization.' " Read more

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