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

Hannity & Colmes guest claimed Clinton "ran ... and hid behind the skirts" at Wellesley
On Hannity & Colmes, while discussing Sen. Hillary Clinton's performance at the October 30 Democratic debate, Kate Obenshain, the former chairwoman of Virginia's Republican Party, said that Clinton "really revealed her Achilles heel this week, which we've all sort of known, but now everybody knows it, that she does not have consistent positions on issues." She later added, "[I]nstead of coming forward to the American people the next day and saying, 'All right. This is really what I meant,' she continued to obfuscate, and then she ran to Wellesley and hid behind the skirts ... and said, 'Those big ... mean boys were picking on me' ... instead of being able to state her positions." Read more

CNN's Situation Room ignored McCain's missed votes in back-to-back segments
Repeating an earlier report on Senate votes missed by Sen. Barack Obama, CNN's Jessica Yellin again failed to note that Republican Sen. John McCain has missed more votes than Obama -- as well as any other senator who is running for president and all but one currently serving senator -- since Congress convened in January. Yellin's report was followed by another by correspondent Susan Candiotti that referenced McCain's ridiculing of an earmark for a museum at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival; Candiotti did not note that McCain missed the vote on the earmark he criticized.
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Time's Halperin didn't check with Sun-Times columnist before falsely claiming that column was product of Clinton campaign opposition research
In a November 5 post on his campaign news website The Page, Time magazine editor-at-large and senior political analyst Mark Halperin claimed that a Chicago Sun-Times column raising questions about the transparency of Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) presidential bid was the product of opposition research provided by the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). Read more

Without mentioning he worked for Giuliani, WSJ quoted Luntz saying, "[N]o one's going to make fun of [Giuliani's lisp] after 9-11"
A November 3 Wall Street Journal article by June Kronholz on the impact of presidential candidates' voices -- which included the reported assessment by "leading voice experts" that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) "can sound shrill" and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "can lack forcefulness" -- reported that "[v]oice coaches generally won't say whether they are helping a specific candidate, although none of those commenting in this article are involved in campaigns." The article went on to quote Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who discussed Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's lisp, saying, "It should have hurt him and it doesn't, and no one's going to make fun of him for it after 9/11." But the article made no mention of the fact that, while Luntz is not "involved" in Giuliani's current presidential campaign, he has previously worked for Giuliani, and he has repeatedly heaped praise on Giuliani this year. Read more

NY Times again falsely suggested that any Dem is saying Clinton should be treated differently from her male rivals
A November 5 "political memo" by New York Times reporters Adam Nagourney and Patrick Healy discussing the role of gender in presidential campaigns in the aftermath of the October 30 Democratic presidential debate asserted: "In a campaign in which a woman is leading the Democratic field, it was perhaps inevitable that the question would arise: would or should she be treated any differently from her rivals?" The headline itself echoed the false suggestion that one or more of the male Democratic candidates were advocating that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) be treated differently because of her gender: "Different Rules when a Rival is a Woman?" However, the article provided no evidence that any Democratic campaign has said that Clinton should be treated differently from the male candidates. Read more

Krauthammer falsely claimed Obama's Iran policy "takes all aggression, all threats, everything serious off the table"
On Fox News' Special Report, Charles Krauthammer claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's policy regarding Iran's purported nuclear weapons program "takes all aggression, all threats, everything serious off the table in advance." But in an interview with The New York Times that formed the basis for an article Krauthammer cited, Obama did not take military action against Iran "off the table." When asked whether he would "retain a military option for striking Iran's nuclear facilities," Obama said, "I don't think the president of the United States takes military options off the table, but I think that we obviously have to measure costs and benefits in all the decisions that we make." Read more

Russert -- followed by NPR's Liasson -- misrepresented Clinton letter to National Archives
During the October 30 Democratic presidential debate, Tim Russert falsely claimed that a 2002 letter written by President Clinton to the National Archives "specifically ask[ed] that any communication between [then-first lady Hillary Clinton] and the president not be made available to the public until 2012" before asking Sen. Clinton, "Would you lift that ban?" In fact, President Clinton's letter did not ask that such communications "not be made available," but rather listed them as documents to be "considered for withholding" [emphasis added]. Clinton Records representative Bruce Lindsey said that Clinton asked in the letter that such communications be designated as part of a "subset" of presidential records "that should be reviewed prior to release." Read more

Torture

NRO's Murdock: "Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud"
In a November 5 National Review Online column -- "Waterboarding Has Its Benefits" -- contributing editor Deroy Murdock wrote that "[w]aterboarding is something of which every American should be proud," adding that "[t]hough clearly uncomfortable, waterboarding loosens lips without causing permanent physical injuries (and unlikely even temporary ones)." In fact, according to medical experts on the effect of torture, waterboarding results in both short and long-term negative consequences for mental and physical health, including possible risk of death, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented. Read more

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