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

ABC's The Note listed misleading American Spectator column on the Clintons as a "Must-Read"
ABC's The Note referred to an American Spectator column claiming that there was a "vast record of Hillary's joint misdeeds with her spouse" as a "Must-Read," but the column offered false or misleading examples as evidence of these purported "misdeeds." Read more

Hannity interviewed Giuliani but didn't disclose reported appearance at a Giuliani fundraiser
On the October 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity interviewed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and his wife, Judith, but Hannity never disclosed during the 21-minute interview that he has reportedly helped raise money for Giuliani's presidential campaign. On August 19, the New York Daily News reported that Hannity "introduced the Republican front-runner at a closed-door, $250-per-head fund-raiser Aug. 9 in Cincinnati, campaign officials acknowledge." Bill Shine, Fox's senior vice president of programming, was quoted in the article saying, "Sean is not a journalist -- Sean is a conservative commentator." Read more

Media once again run with anonymously sourced allegation of Clinton eavesdropping
In recent days, numerous media outlets have reported on an anonymously sourced allegation that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) eavesdropped on a phone conversation involving Bill Clinton's political opponents during his 1992 presidential campaign -- an allegation the Clinton campaign has said is "categorically untrue." In the book Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Little, Brown & Co., June 2007), co-authors Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. cited a single anonymous source to claim that during the campaign, Hillary Clinton "listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack." Gerth and Van Natta wrote that "Bill's supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions" and described the tape as having been "obtained under questionable circumstances." According to the endnotes of Her Way, Gerth and Van Natta's only source for this claim is an "[a]uthor interview with former campaign aide present at the tape playing in 2006." Some in the media seized on the allegation before the book was even officially released and many failed to note that the sole basis for the claim is a single unnamed source describing events that allegedly occurred 14 years earlier. After numerous reports in June, the allegation did not surface again until an October 16 article in The Hill, headlined "GOP targeting Clinton on phone-call snooping." The Hill article quoted an anonymous "GOP official" accusing Clinton of "hypocrisy" because she allegedly eavesdropped on political opponents but opposes the Bush administration's efforts to expand the government's authority to conduct electronic surveillance of communications involving people in the United States without a warrant. Read more

Fox News on-screen graphic: "RUDY GIULIANI + 9/11 = THE WHITE HOUSE??"
On the October 17 edition of Fox News' Studio B with Shepard Smith, during a segment on Fox News host Sean Hannity's interview with Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and his wife, Judith, an on-screen graphic read: "RUDY GIULIANI + 9/11 = THE WHITE HOUSE??" Smith prefaced his discussion with Republican strategist Margaret Hoover and Democratic strategist Malia Lazu by asserting, "Judy Giuliani has been very quiet for the past few months, maybe by campaign design, but last night she and her husband sat down with Sean Hannity -- in obviously very friendly territory -- and one of the first topics: 9-11, the day Rudy Giuliani became a worldwide, household name." After airing a video clip of the interview, Smith said: "Judy Giuliani, speaking out, and on the record with her husband, a place we've not seen her for a long time -- in the public eye. Why now? Why that venue? And why this topic?" Read more

Social Security

Will falsely suggested Sen. Clinton's support of tax credits for private retirement investment is new
George Will wrote that Sen. Clinton "stridently opposed" President Bush's "advocacy of personal accounts financed by a portion of individuals' Social Security taxes" and suggested that her recent proposal to offer a matching tax credit to families that invest in 401(k) retirement accounts reflects "an undisclosed epiphany," after which "she belatedly recognizes that 401(k) funds invested in equities are a foundation for security." But contrary to Will's suggestion, Clinton has long expressed support for tax credits for retirement investments, while opposing the diversion of Social Security payments into private accounts.
Read more

Immigration

NRO's Derbyshire on percentages of Hispanics enrolled in school in Iowa town: "[T]ruly an invasion"
In an October 18 entry -- titled "Aztlan North" -- on National Review Online's blog The Corner, NRO columnist John Derbyshire cited the percentage of Hispanic students in the schools of Storm Lake, Iowa, and then wrote: "Say what you like, that is truly an invasion. Why on earth are we letting this happen?" Read more

Olbermann named Coulter "Worst Person" for remarks on Medved program about Jews
During the October 17 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named right-wing pundit Ann Coulter the "winner" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment following her October 15 appearance on The Michael Medved Show, which Media Matters for America noted. Olbermann characterized her remarks as "clarifying" the comments about "perfecting the Jews" that she made on the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea. Olbermann stated: "Now, it's Michael Medved making the mistake of having put her on the air, where she says, quote, 'Jews don't accept the New Testament, so, you know, as 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.' " Olbermann continued: " 'The Jews believe that my savior was a raving lunatic,' she says. And bonus points for saying, 'and you don't see me sniffling and crying.' All we see you doing is sniffling and crying." Read more

Politico reported Democrats "came under fire" for using children in SCHIP fight, not McConnell office's alleged attack on Frosts
A Politico article discussing political strategy on the State Children's Health Insurance Program expansion bill reported that "[t]he Democratic-controlled Congress has couched SCHIP in the context of children" and that "Republicans ... have focused their strategy on money." Beyond failing to explain what is remarkable about Democrats' "couch[ing]" a children's health bill "in the context of children," the article also ignored reports that Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) office promoted conservative bloggers' smears of Graeme Frost and his family. Read more

This mail was sent by Media Matters for America to 'news@energy-net.org'. Please visit us at http://mediamatters.org

You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.

To change your email subscription preferences, visit http://mediamatters.org/users/prefs.html

If you'd like to unsubscribe from all Media Matters for America emails, you can just click on http://mediamatters.org/users/unsub/_TFiSm6WIkiaci7iLu6ZtH8gu6JaPh8t_vLvpt4dfhY.

To contact us directly, reply to this mail or visit http://mediamatters.org/contact_us