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

Repeating Clinton Yankees myth, Matthews asked: "[D]oesn't she know she looks like a fraud?"
On Hardball, Chris Matthews stated of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's baseball loyalties: "She went to the Yankees so that she could run for senator from New York. It's so obvious. Why is she -- doesn't she know she looks like a fraud?" However, the idea that Clinton switched allegiance from the Chicago Cubs to the New York Yankees during her Senate campaign is a myth commonly repeated in the media and not supported by evidence. Clinton's 2003 autobiography contains a photograph of her wearing a Yankees cap in 1992, and The Washington Post reported in 1994 that "Mrs. Clinton ... as a kid was a 'big-time' fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees and 'understudied' Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle." Read more

NY Times' Healy, USA Today advanced myth that Clinton switched baseball allegiances

In an October 26 New York Times article, staff writer Patrick Healy reported that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) "took a rare shot at an old New York rival and current Republican presidential candidate, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for saying he would root for the [Boston] Red Sox [against the Colorado Rockies] in the World Series." Healy was referring to Giuliani's recent statement that he will "root[] for the Red Sox" -- longtime rivals of the New York Yankees -- despite being a longtime Yankees fan. Healy continued: "Giuliani, a Yankees fan, has mocked Mrs. Clinton over the years for professing allegiance to the Yankees, even though she grew up a Chicago Cubs fan and recently said she would split her loyalty between those teams if they met in the World Series." Similarly, side-by-side photographs of Clinton wearing a Yankees cap in one and a Cubs cap in the other accompanied an October 26 online article on USA Today's website. The caption read: "Hillary Rodham Clinton has said she has split allegiances, rooting for her childhood team, the Cubs, as well as the New York Yankees now that she is a resident and senator of New York." However, the idea that Clinton proclaimed herself a Yankees fan only after she decided to run for a New York Senate seat or that she "switched allegiance" from the Cubs to the Yankees during her Senate campaign is a myth commonly repeated in the media that is not supported by evidence. As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, Clinton's 2003 autobiography, Living History (Simon & Schuster), contains a photograph of her wearing a Yankees cap in 1992 -- eight years before she ran for the Senate. Further, The Washington Post reported on September 12, 1994, that "Mrs. Clinton ... as a kid was a 'big-time' fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees and 'understudied' Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle." Read more

The Note identified as "Must-Read" week-old American Spectator column advancing rumor The Note itself has advanced
On October 26, ABC's political newsletter The Note included in its daily list of "Must-Reads" a column by American Spectator founder and editor-in-chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. -- originally published by the Spectator on October 18 and reprinted by The New York Sun on October 26 -- that, as Media Matters for America previously documented, advanced an anonymously sourced allegation that Hillary Rodham Clinton eavesdropped on a phone conversation involving Bill Clinton's political opponents during his 1992 presidential campaign. Sen. Clinton's (D-NY) presidential campaign has said the allegation is "categorically untrue." Read more

In trailer to new anti-Clinton movie, Peter Paul baselessly suggests connection between anti-Clinton lawsuit and detention in Brazilian jail
A FoxNews.com article reported that allegations against the Clintons made by Peter F. Paul -- a lawyer and businessman who has been convicted of fraud -- in the purported documentary "Hillary Uncensored" include an accusation that the Clintons "made sure Paul was kept in a Brazilian prison for 25 months, including 58 days in a maximum security cellblock nicknamed the 'Corridor of Death,' while the Justice Department waited to extradite him." In the trailer, Paul is not shown alleging that the Clintons "made sure" he "was kept in a Brazilian prison," but he does suggest a connection between his filing of a civil lawsuit against the Clintons and his detention in a Brazilian jail. In fact, Paul was indicted after Bill Clinton left office, and, according to the U.S. attorney's office that indicted him, Paul was arrested in Brazil because he refused to return to the United States.
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Propaganda/Noise Machine

Newsmax's beef? "Media Matters quoted, but de-emphasized, much of the fuller context of Beck's remarks"
Quoting from an October 23 Media Matters for America press release on radio host Glenn Beck's statement that "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in [the Southern California] forest fire today," an October 25 Newsmax.com article claimed that Media Matters "implie[d]" that Beck "somehow approved of the burning of certain Southern California residents' homes." The article went on to claim that "a plain reading of his words in context reflects no such approval," and claimed that Media Matters "quoted, but de-emphasized, much of the fuller context" of Beck's remarks. In fact, Media Matters never "implie[d]" that Beck "approved of the burning of certain Southern California residents' homes," and Newsmax offered no explanation as to how Media Matters "de-emphasized" the "fuller context" of Beck's remarks -- indeed, it acknowledged that Media Matters quoted "the fuller context." Read more

Hall on O'Reilly's accusation that cable news is ignoring Medal of Honor: "It's not true"
On the October 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, in response to the accusation, which host Bill O'Reilly has made repeatedly, that the media are ignoring the Medal of Honor ceremony for Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL killed during a rescue mission in Afghanistan in 2005 and the first service member to receive the honor for the war in Afghanistan, Fox News contributor Jane Hall said, "I've got to tell you, CNN covered this at 7 o'clock. MSNBC covered it live. You all covered it live. CNN covered it multiple times." Hall added, "I don't think it's fair to say what you're trying to say about cable. It's not true," and later stated, "They must have covered it 10 times during the day, Bill." O'Reilly responded, "OK, Jane, you can stop talking now. The segment's over." Read more

Health Care

Fox's Garrett falsely claimed CBO determined that revised SCHIP bill "would cover fewer children"
In reporting on the House's vote to pass a revised bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Fox News' Major Garrett asserted, "Congress' own accounting office said the new SCHIP bill would cover fewer children and at greater cost than the original bill." In fact, the Congressional Budget Office said that the revised bill would cover as many children in SCHIP and Medicaid as the original bill would have covered.
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Budget

Ignoring deficit spending, Wash. Post's soon-to-be economics reporter asserted Bush "is pay[ing] for the war" with other cuts in budget
The Washington Post's Michael Fletcher asserted that President Bush "is generally against tax increases as he believes they stifle economic growth. So his idea is to pay for the war by cutting back elsewhere in the budget." In fact, inflation-adjusted non-defense discretionary outlays have risen each year since Bush took office; Bush has actually paid for the war by deficit spending. Read more

War in Iraq

Post's Milbank failed to note Shays' misrepresentation of Clyburn comments
In his column, The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, referencing comments Democratic House Majority Whip James Clyburn made to the Post on July 30, wrote: "[Rep. Christopher] Shays condemned a House Democratic leader for saying that 'if the Iraqi war went well it would be bad for Democrats.' " But Milbank did not provide Clyburn's actual statement, nor did he note that Shays misrepresented Clyburn's remarks. Read more

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