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

Wash. Post's Hiatt distorted Obama's education remarks, touted McCain's "principles"
Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama "derided" teaching math and reading to "all children, especially poor and minority children" as "preparing children 'to fill in bubbles on standardized tests.' " In fact, Obama suggested that preparation for standardized tests shouldn't "come at the expense of music, or art, or phys. ed., or science." Hiatt also claimed that Sen. John McCain is the only current presidential candidate with "principles" that he "holds strongly enough to take an electoral hit" on issues such as the Iraq war, immigration, and "curbing the influence of money in politics." But McCain has shifted positions and demonstrated inconsistencies on all three of those issues. Read more

Kornblut claimed Clinton change in rhetoric on health care plan, but offered no evidence
In an entry on The Trail, titled "A Clinton Shift in Selling Health Plan," The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut wrote, "When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) introduced her health care proposal, she emphasized its centrist nature: a business-friendly model that would allow consumers maximum choice," adding, "But ... Clinton honed in this weekend with a more traditionally liberal aspect of her plan: It would require all people to get health insurance, with a goal of achieving universal health care." In so doing, Kornblut suggested that Clinton's emphasis on the "universal" aspect of her health care plan is new, without offering any evidence to support that suggestion. In fact, when Clinton introduced her plan, she repeatedly referred to the fact that it is "universal" and "covers all Americans." And since introducing it, she has repeatedly stressed its focus on universal coverage. Read more

Ignoring his own history, Matthews asserted, "Huckabee has got the biggest free ride from the liberal media"
MSNBC's Chris Matthews said of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, "I think Huckabee has got the biggest free ride from the liberal media that I have ever seen in my life. I mean, the guy, if you want to get into conspiracy theories -- I mean why is everybody who is liberal pushing Huckabee? Give me a break." However, during the November 8 edition of Hardball, Matthews introduced an interview with Huckabee by comparing him with the other Republican presidential candidates and asking, "[W]hy are prominent Christian conservatives bypassing former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to support a New Yorker with liberal positions on social issues, a senator who's had poor relations with evangelicals, and a Mormon who's changed his position on abortion?" Matthews went on to say, "[I]t's an honor to have you on the show. Everybody likes you, Governor Huckabee. We're waiting for those poll numbers to reflect it. Everybody around here seems to like you, and we'll see what that's worth. Anyway, good luck in Iowa." Read more

Economic Issues

NY Times claimed Bush is addressing "kitchen table issues," but ignored Bush's objections to Congress' "kitchen table" efforts
A New York Times article asserted that President Bush "is shifting his agenda to what aides call 'kitchen table issues' -- small ideas that affect ordinary people's lives and do not take an act of Congress to put in place," citing as examples the mortgage crisis and toy safety concerns. But the Times did not note that the Bush administration has in fact opposed attempted "acts of Congress" in the form of legislation by Democrats targeting those issues. Read more

Electoral Reform

NPR aired without challenging GOP misrepresentation of CA electoral college initiative's effect
Reporting on a Republican-backed California ballot initiative that would award the state's electoral votes by congressional district, NPR correspondent Ina Jaffe aired an audio clip of Republican consultant Dave Gilliard, who asserted: "We want [presidential candidates] to come out here and actually campaign throughout California. We want them to go to the Central Valley, and Inland Empire, and the North Coast, and talk to Californians about what's important to California." In fact, California has only three congressional districts that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) or President Bush carried by 5 percentage points or less during the 2004 election, and thus, if the initiative passed, campaigns would presumably have little incentive "to come out here and actually campaign." Further, Jaffe's report did not note one of the major arguments made in opposition to the California initiative -- that it reapportions the electoral votes of only California, rather than applying a nationwide standard for the distribution of electoral votes.
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Wash. Post article highlighted review of Post columnist Gerson's book but omitted specific plagiarism allegation
A Washington Post article reported that David Frum's review of Post columnist Michael Gerson's book Heroic Conservatism "offers several examples of what he [Frum] terms the author's self-aggrandizement, saying that Gerson inflated his role in the development of the president's AIDS initiative in Africa and in writing a potential concession speech for George W. Bush on Election Day 2000." However, the article did not mention that Frum accused Gerson of plagiarizing from Frum's White House memoir. Read more

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