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

On Hannity & Colmes, Santorum falsely claimed Sen. Clinton is "not doing any kind of interviews"
On Hannity & Colmes, former Sen. Rick Santorum asserted that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is "not doing any kind of interviews." Clinton has, in fact, given interviews to numerous media outlets in recent weeks, but Santorum's false claim went unchallenged. Read more

Cliff May on Sen. Clinton: "At least call her a Vaginal-American"
On the October 15 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, discussing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) presidential campaign with Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and Cliff May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, host Tucker Carlson said: "Gene, this is an amazing statistic: 94 percent of women say they'd be more likely to vote if a woman were on the ballot. I think of all the times I voted for people just because they're male. You know? The ballot comes up, and I'm like, 'Wow. He's a dude. I think I'll vote for him. We've got similar genitalia. I'm -- he's getting my vote.' " After asserting that "the Clinton campaign says: 'Hillary isn't running as a woman,' " Carlson stated: "Well, that's actually completely false, considering the Hillary campaign -- and I get their emails -- relentlessly pushes the glass ceiling argument. 'You should vote for her because she's a woman.' They say that all the time." May responded: "At least call her a Vaginal-American." Read more

The Hill uncritically reported Gerth's false claim that "there hasn't been one fact in" Her Way "that's been challenged"
The Hill uncritically reported Jeff Gerth's claim that Sen. Hillary Clinton's "campaign has not disputed any facts reported in the final version of his book," Her Way, adding: "There hasn't been one fact in the book that's been challenged." However, Clinton's presidential campaign has taken issue with the book's claim that, as far back as 1993, the Clintons "planned two terms in the White House for Bill and, later, two for Hillary." Read more

Media

Buchanan on Hardball: Imus was "more a victim of hatred than a perpetrator of hatred"
On the October 15 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, during a discussion of Don Imus' reported debut on New York radio station WABC in December, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan told host Chris Matthews, "Chris, in my judgment, the guy is more a victim of hatred than a perpetrator of hatred," later adding, "[I]f Don Imus had been black, nothing would have been done to him." As Media Matters for America documented, on the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which, during the 2006-07 season, was composed of eight African-American and two white players, as "nappy-headed hos." Imus was subsequently fired from CBS Radio and MSNBC. Read more

O'Reilly to Coulter: "I don't even care, to tell you the truth" about Coulter's controversial comments
A Los Angeles Times article about Ann Coulter's recent appearance on CNBC, in which she said "we" Christians "just want Jews to be perfected," reported that "Fox News did not rule out having her on as a guest again, but a network executive said if she came on she would be pressed about her statements." Nevertheless, during Coulter's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, her first appearance on a Fox News primetime show since the day on which she made the comments, O'Reilly told her, "I don't even care" about those comments. Read more

Limbaugh says he told journalist writing story on him: "[W]e're going to find out where your kids go to school"
During the October 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed to have "once" participated in the kind of "destructive reporting and behavior" that, according to him, reporters "dish out." Limbaugh said his target was a reporter, whose name he said he would not "mention," who was writing "a cover story on me coming out of one of the big news magazines, and it was going to totally mischaracterize me and what I do and how I do it." Limbaugh continued: "[W]e found out who was writing it and made a couple phone calls to the person writing it. And we said, 'You know what? We're going to find out where your kids go to school. We're going to find out who you knocked up in high school. We're going to find out what drugs you used. We're going to find out where you go to drink and do -- we're gonna find out how you paid for your house. We're going to do -- and we're going to do exact -- and we're going to say that, you know what? You are no different than Al Goldstein. You both masturbate.' " Read more

War in Iraq

Fox co-anchor Hemmer mischaracterized Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" remark
Fox News' Bill Hemmer mischaracterized Rush Limbaugh's comment about "phony soldiers," stating on America's Newsroom that "Limbaugh called a soldier a 'phony soldier' after that soldier made up stories about atrocities in Iraq." In fact, Limbaugh characterized as "phony soldiers" -- not the singular "phony soldier," as Hemmer claimed -- service members who support U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Read more

Fox & Friends' Doocy falsely claimed that Media Matters "never, ever touch anybody on MSNBC. They never mention anybody on CNN"
On the October 16 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, during an interview with nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh, co-host Steve Doocy asserted that Media Matters for America "only takes shots at guys like you, at Fox News. They never, ever touch anybody on MSNBC. They never mention anybody on CNN." In response, Limbaugh asserted: "Well, they do, though, sometimes just for cover. They will rip a Democrat or a liberal media person if they attack [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton (D-NY)]." In fact, Media Matters has identified conservative misinformation from a broad cross section of media, including numerous instances on CNN and MSNBC concerning a wide variety of topics and people. Read more

Religious Discrimination

Medved fears Coulter may have created "some additional controversy" with assertion: "Jews believe that my savior, a Jew, was a raving lunatic"
On the October 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Medved hosted right-wing pundit Ann Coulter to discuss her October 8 assertion on CNBC's The Big Idea -- documented by Media Matters for America -- that "we" Christians "just want Jews to be perfected." Before airing a clip of Coulter's comments, Medved said: "[W]hat I wanted to do was to just get clear on the record here ... [n]ot only [on] what you said but what you meant. Here is the section of the original interview ... that started the process that got you into such heated controversy." During the subsequent discussion, Coulter asserted, "[A]s long as we're playing this new sport of 'he who is offended first wins,' if anyone's going to be offended by anyone else's religion, the Jews believe that my savior, a Jew, was a raving lunatic, and you don't see me sniffling and crying." In response, Medved said, "Be careful," adding, "I'm sure this is gonna come back. You don't really want to say -- because Jews do not -- traditional Jews do not really believe ... that Jesus was a raving lunatic." Before going to commercial break, Medved announced: "We're coming right back with Ann Coulter, who has, I don't know, maybe created some additional controversy -- I hope not." Read more

Domestic spying

NY Post falsely reported FISA bill would "leave[] in place" "legal hurdles" purportedly impeding search for kidnapped soldiers
A New York Post article reported that Congress plans to vote on "a bill that leaves in place the legal hurdles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] -- problems that were highlighted during the May search for a group of kidnapped U.S. soldiers." Hurt suggested that the "legal hurdle" was that "[t]he FISA law applies even to a cellphone conversation between two people in Iraq, because those communications zip along wires through U.S. hubs, which is where the taps are typically applied." In fact, the bill specifically provides that "a court order is not required for the acquisition of the contents of any communication between persons that are not United States persons and are not located within the United States," even if those communications are routed through U.S. hubs. Read more

Global Warming

Media ignore British judge's conclusion that An Inconvenient Truth is "substantially founded upon scientific research and fact"
Reporting on a recent ruling by a British judge about the documentary An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount Classics, May 2006), featuring former Vice President Al Gore, numerous media outlets -- including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, CNN, and Fox News -- routinely reported that the judge found that the film contained nine "errors" without mentioning that he also stated in the ruling that the film is "substantially founded upon scientific research and fact." The judge also said he had "no doubt" that the defendant's expert was "right when he says that: 'Al Gore's presentation of the causes and likely effects of climate change in the film was broadly accurate.' " Read more

In editorial attacking Gen. Clark, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette misrepresented Limbaugh "phony soldiers" controversy
In an editorial, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette attacked Wesley Clark for "wading into the muddy thick" of the controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh's characterization of service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers," saying that Clark had "adopted" Limbaugh's "vociferous style" and made him "look dignified." However, in doing so, the editorial misrepresented the context of Limbaugh's remarks and the controversy that ensued. Read more

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