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 Bernstein cited Russert's misleading debate question to Clinton as an explanation for "what led to the problem in the Clinton campaign"
On The Situation Room, Carl Bernstein accused Hillary Clinton of "dissembling" in her response to a question during an October 30 Democratic presidential candidate debate regarding the release of records from Bill Clinton's presidency, asserting that her response was "the opening" the other "candidates have been looking for." But Bernstein didn't note that the question, by moderator Tim Russert, was based on a falsehood. Bernstein has previously claimed that Hillary Clinton was "disingenuous" in her answer to the question. Read more

MSNBC's Brewer, U.S. News' Walsh didn't note Huckabee's reported acknowledgment that he had not even heard of NIE on Iran
MSNBC's Contessa Brewer and U.S. News & World Report's Kenneth Walsh discussed the general reactions of "GOP [presidential] candidates" to the release of the key judgments of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. While Brewer mentioned the specific reactions of John McCain and Fred Thompson, neither Brewer nor Walsh noted that Mike Huckabee reportedly stated that he was not familiar with the NIE, having not read it, not been briefed on it, and not even heard of it. Read more

Separation of Church and State

O'Reilly: "If I had not done the campaign, then the forces of darkness would have won" the "war" on Christmas
During the December 4 edition of his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly declared victory against the secularists in his "war" on Christmas. Discussing the issue with Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, O'Reilly asserted: "Now, first of all, you don't deny that, a few years ago -- and we won this war, largely -- that there was a very effective movement underway to wipe out, in the public square, all vestiges of Christmas. Stores were ordering employees not to say 'Merry Christmas.' Towns were suing to get the crèche off the public property." O'Reilly later claimed: "If I had not done the campaign, then the forces of darkness would have won. There's no question about that. We were able to rally the Alliance Defense Fund in Phoenix, Arizona, to fight the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] in court. We were able to convince the major retailers to not order their employees to not say 'Merry Christmas,' to stop that nonsense. We won that." Read more

LGBT Issues

Savage calls Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr a "gay, phony general"
On the December 3 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage called retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr (CSMR) a "gay, phony general." Kerr, who is a member of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) Military Advisory Council, a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Americans for Hillary Clinton steering committee, and a co-chairman of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) Veterans and Military Retirees for Hillary Committee, had a video question about the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy selected for airing during the November 28 CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate and was in the audience for an opportunity to ask a follow-up question. Read more

National Security/Foreign Policy

Fox's Griffin reported that Democrats "stalled" funding on Afghanistan, but not that GOP blocked bill
On the December 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, while reporting on the increased levels of violence in Afghanistan, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin claimed: "The Pentagon has requested $30 billion for the war in Afghanistan, but the funding is currently stalled by Democrats in Congress who are trying to pressure the president to pull troops out of Iraq." However, Griffin did not note that on November 14, the House passed a $50 billion supplemental spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other military operations until February 2008 that would require President Bush to begin pulling troops out of Iraq. Bush -- who had not requested a separate funding bill for Afghanistan but had asked for $196 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other operations through fiscal year 2008 -- threatened to veto the House bill, and Senate Republicans successfully blocked it on November 16. Read more

Electoral Reform

Sacramento Bee uncritically reported GOP's claims about effects of CA ballot initiative
In reporting on a Republican-backed California ballot initiative that would award the state's electoral votes by congressional district, The Sacramento Bee stated that "Republicans behind the initiative said it would force presidential candidates to visit California more often and give more voters a voice in the presidential outcome." But the Bee did not note that there are only three congressional districts in California that Sen. John Kerry or President Bush carried by 5 percentage points or less during the 2004 presidential election; thus, if the initiative passed, campaigns would presumably have little incentive to "visit California more often," as the initiative's backers reportedly claimed. Moreover, California voters would have less influence on the outcome of elections, because voters would likely deliver fewer than the current 55 electoral votes to the winner. Read more

Media

Fox News' Hill is worst person "runner up'' for saying that "something about what [Clinton] said ... drove [Eisenberg] over the edge"
During the December 4 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host E.D. Hill the "runner up" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, saying of Leeland Eisenberg -- the man accused of taking hostages at the Rochester, New Hampshire, presidential campaign office of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) -- that "something about what Sen. Clinton said just sort of drove him over the edge. That's kind of what it appears to sound like." Olbermann stated: "Our runner up, E.D. Hill of 'Fixed News,' rounding out a weekend of absolutely psychotic Fox coverage, politicizing the hostage situation at the Hillary Clinton local headquarters in New Hampshire last Friday. The hostage-taker, Leeland Eisenberg, an emotionally disturbed man who had concluded he needed hospitalization and was not getting it, apparently saw a Clinton campaign ad in which another New Hampshire [sic] resident [Joe Ward] said Senator Clinton had helped him to get health insurance. He reportedly told a relative that he was, quote, 'going to do something to get into the hospital.' " Olbermann concluded: "So, E.D. Hill says, quote, '[S]omething about what Senator Clinton said just sort of drove him over the edge. That's kind of what it appears to sound like.' Just sort of kind of what it appears to sound like? She didn't drive him over the edge, Miss Hill; she drove you over the edge." Read more

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