Fox's Napolitano accused DA prosecuting DeLay of political motivations, ignored his prosecution record
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano accused Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of being "openly and notoriously political," repeating his suggestion that Earle's prosecution of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) on conspiracy charges is politically motivated. But in making the accusation, Napolitano once again ignored Earle's record, which includes the prosecution of significantly more Democratic officials than Republicans, as Media Matters for America has previously noted.
Borger adopted Frist's defense as fact, failed to note that his past defense was false
CBS News contributor and U.S. News & World Report contributing editor Gloria Borger continued a pattern, identified by Media Matters for America, of discussing the brewing scandal over Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-TN) suspiciously timed stock sale while leaving out key facts that undermine the credibility of claims Frist has made in his defense.
CNN, other news outlets ignored Brown's false claim about Blanco's state of emergency request
On the September 27 editions of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and NewsNight with Aaron Brown, anchor Anderson Cooper billed a report on former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael D. Brown's congressional testimony as an effort to "check what he said against the facts." In the segment that followed, however, CNN congressional correspondent Ed Henry simply reported on the "war of words" between Brown and members of the House committee investigating the handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster by local, state, and federal government agencies. Despite Cooper's introduction, Henry did not offer viewers the facts surrounding the Katrina response, nor did he discuss the veracity of Brown's statements. He merely noted that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), in a "blistering" response, had described Brown as "either out of touch with the truth or reality." But if Henry had actually fact-checked Brown's testimony, he would have identified as clearly false Brown's claim that Blanco excluded several parishes from her federal emergency assistance request.
News outlets highlighted Bush's call for fuel conservation, failed to note that it contradicts administration record
News outlets nationwide highlighted President Bush's recent request that U.S. consumers drive less and "be better conservers of energy" in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But most media outlets reporting on Bush's public appeal did not note that it represents a departure from his administration's prior stance on energy conservation.
Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"
Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."
Cavuto suggested he can't be both "a good American" and "a good journalist"
On the September 27 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Fox News host and vice president for business news Neil Cavuto told co-hosts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, "I would much sooner go down as a pretty good American when I try to be versus a good journalist. The good journalist thing is not nearly as important."
O'Reilly falsely claimed he retracts his false claims
On the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly claimed that "if we make a mistake ... we will retract, and we will apologize, and we will put it up."
WSJ baselessly attacked Time for launching "politically motivated attack" on FDA official
A September 27 Wall Street Journal editorial (subscription required) baselessly accused Time magazine of engaging in a "politically motivated attack" on Scott Gottlieb, the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs. According to the Journal, an October 3 Time article investigating possible "cronyism" within the Bush administration "fingered Dr. Gottlieb this week without offering any evidence of any special connections to the White House -- family or otherwise." The Journal went on to "guess" that "Time got suckered by sources who don't agree with Dr. Gottlieb on policy and used the magazine to try to damage his career." In fact, Time did offer evidence that Gottlieb might not be ideally suited to his position at the FDA and also provided evidence of his "special connection" to the Bush administration: Gottlieb once had extensive ties to the pharmaceutical industry, and he is friends with former FDA commissioner Mark McClellan, brother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
On The Chris Matthews Show, Matthews and guest insisted that the ongoing insurgency in Iraq was unexpected
Ignoring evidence that the Bush administration received repeated pre-war warnings of the potential for a sustained insurgency in Iraq, NBC host Chris Matthews and nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker insisted that the continuing bloodshed had not been anticipated. On the September 25 broadcast of NBC's syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, Matthews suggested that the "enduring" nature of the Iraqi insurgency was a surprise and told viewers that he didn't "know many people who expected it to still be going on this long." Parker added that while "there was no preparation for the long haul" in Iraq, "I don't think anyone envisioned two years down the road we'd still be fighting insurgents."
Wash. Post editorial falsely claimed that congressional leaders "dropped proposals for yet more tax cuts"
A September 27 Washington Post editorial falsely claimed that congressional leaders -- taking into consideration the Iraq war, rising national debt, and the combined disasters of hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- "have rightly dropped proposals for yet more tax cuts." This assertion is contradicted by the Post's own reporting, which points out that tax cuts are in fact a major component of President Bush's hurricane relief package. Additionally, Republican plans to extend Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and repeal the estate tax have not been "dropped"; Republican congressional leaders are, at best, divided over how to approach tax policy in the wake of the hurricane disasters.
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