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

CNN's Cooper praised Huckabee's failure to answer WWJD question as "probably one of the best answers you could possibly come up to"
During post-debate discussion of the November 28 CNN/YouTube Republican debate, CNN's Anderson Cooper praised Mike Huckabee's response to the question, "The death penalty: What would Jesus do?" calling Huckabee's answer, "certainly, probably one of the best answers you could possibly come up to, to that question." However, Huckabee, who has repeatedly invoked Jesus Christ and Christianity to explain his position on matters of public policy, did not answer the question or Cooper's own follow-up.
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Wash. Post's Solomon ignored facts in reporting distribution of Obama's Hopefund contributions
In claiming that Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign "helped recommend several of the donations his political action committee made in recent months to politicians in key primary states," The Washington Post's John Solomon wrote that "nearly three-quarters of the money the PAC has given out since this summer" was given to candidates in "states with primary dates through mid-February." Solomon failed to note that most states -- 31 of 50 -- plus the District of Columbia will hold their Democratic presidential primaries or caucuses on or before February 12. Further, the former Federal Election Commission chief counsel whom Solomon depicted as questioning the legality of Obama's PAC contributions has since said his quote was taken "out of context." Read more

On Hannity & Colmes, DeLay claimed "there was no gotcha questions" in Democratic CNN/YouTube debate
On Hannity & Colmes, Tom DeLay claimed that the questions asked during the November 28 CNN/YouTube Republican debate "were nothing but gotcha questions with a liberal bias," and that "there was no gotcha questions like these" during the July 23 CNN/YouTube Democratic debate. Co-host Sean Hannity asserted, "Now I don't remember seeing Republican questioners at the Democratic debate. Do you?" But several questions from the July 23 Democratic debate could be classified as Republican "gotcha" questions, and the Los Angeles Times reported that a "review" of the Democratic debate found that "[a]t least two of the citizen-interrogators had clear GOP leanings." Read more

MSNBC's Culhane on NH hostage situation: "Does [Clinton] pick up the phone ... or does she let the police and the FBI handle it?"
During the November 30 edition of MSNBC Live, correspondent Patty Culhane discussed a hostage situation at the Rochester, New Hampshire, campaign office of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) in which the hostage-taker reportedly demanded to talk to Clinton. Culhane speculated on the "interesting political dilemma for Senator Clinton": Read more

Morris and Tyrrell claimed Clinton campaign was responsible for Kerr question at GOP debate
On Fox News' Fox & Friends, while discussing retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr's question during the November 28 CNN/YouTube Republican debate, Dick Morris said, "You know, listen, let's put the blame where it's due. This is a dirty trick by the Hillary Clinton campaign." On Fox & Friends First, R. Emmett Tyrrell replied, "I think so," when Steve Doocy asked, "So, are you saying that the Clintons had something to do with CNN doing a bad job vetting these questioners?" Tyrrell later stated that "the Clintons ... have played fast and loose with ethics since day one. This is a pattern." Read more

Wash. Post again misreports Bill Clinton's Swift Boat comments
A Washington Post article reported that "[a]fter the Democratic debate in Philadelphia last month," former President Bill Clinton "insinuated that his wife's Democratic rivals were mounting attacks on her akin to the 'Swift boat' campaign Republicans launched against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) during the 2004 race." In fact, Clinton did not accuse Democrats of swift-boating his wife; rather, he condemned Republican attacks on Democrats and the role the media play in contributing to such attacks. The article was at least the third in which the Post has reported on Clinton's comments without accurately reporting his statements. Read more

Despite airing praise of Huckabee's "ability to answer the questions," CNN again didn't acknowledge he didn't answer WWJD question
In a November 29 report on CNN's The Situation Room on the reactions of "24 undecided Republicans" to the previous night's CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate, CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash reported that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee "scored the best on likability." She then aired a clip of "undecided voter" Lace Mobley saying that Huckabee "impressed me with his candidness and also his ability to answer the questions that were broached to him." Following Mobley's comment, Bash reported that "with undecided voters," Huckabee got the "most laughs" with the statement "Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office, Anderson. That's what Jesus would do." But Bash did not note that in making that statement, Huckabee failed to answer both the question originally presented to him and debate moderator Anderson Cooper's follow-up. Read more

War in Iraq

CNN's Henry reported Bush's attack on Dems "for dragging their feet" on war funding but not GOP blocking of bill
On the November 29 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, congressional correspondent Ed Henry reported that President Bush "ripp[ed] into Democrats for dragging their feet" on passing legislation to provide emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that Bush "essentially declar[ed] that American lives now are at risk because the Pentagon is trying to stop what he called 'another day of destruction right here in America' -- a terror attack." Henry went on to note that congressional Democrats "have been pushing a plan ... that would give the president about $50 billion in war funding, but with a catch -- that he would have to agree to bring most U.S. troops home from Iraq by December 2008." Yet Henry did not mention that House Democrats -- beyond simply "pushing" such a plan -- recently passed a $50 billion war funding bill that included the redeployment provision, which Senate Republicans then successfully blocked on November 16. By contrast, in their reports on Bush's criticism of Congress for not passing war funding legislation, The Washington Post and The New York Times noted that the Republicans blocked the $50 billion war funding bill in the Senate. Read more

Media

After previously highlighting comments on progressive blogs, will media cover hateful comments on Free Republic about NH hostage situation?
Media Matters for America has previously documented several media figures who have highlighted controversial comments on progressive websites. Media Matters asks: Will the media report that while discussing breaking news of hostages being taken at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) presidential campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, numerous commenters on the right-wing website Free Republic posted hateful comments about the situation? Read more

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