Media Matters Latest, November 01, 2005

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  Cable news coverage of Alito nomination skewed right

CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News provided imbalanced coverage of the October 31 nomination of federal appeals court judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court -- Republicans, conservatives, and pro-Alito guests dominated the networks' coverage; far outnumbering Democrats, progressives, and Alito critics. Media Matters for America analyzed the cable news networks' October 31 coverage of the nomination from 7 a.m. to noon ET.
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  USA Today editorial on CIA leak case riddled with false, misleading claims
  

An October 31 USA Today editorial made false, baseless, and misleading claims about special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the alleged leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted on October 28 for obstruction of justice, perjury, and false statements in connection with the investigation.
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  Woodward v. Washington Post on CIA assessment of leak damage
  

On the October 27 edition of CNN's Larry King Live, Washington Post assistant managing editor
Bob Woodward claimed that the CIA has completed a damage assessment related to the outing of agency operative Valerie Plame and found its detrimental effects to be "quite minimal." However, two days later, Woodward's own newspaper reported that the CIA initially found the damage "serious enough to warrant an investigation," and stated that the agency typically waits until the conclusion of criminal investigations to launch formal damage assessments.
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• Couric echoed conservative rhetoric, suggested Alito "is a strict constructionist" who "will

interpret the Constitution literally"

On the October 31 edition of NBC's Today, co-host Katie Couric baselessly suggested that newly named Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. is "a strict constructionist" who "will interpret the Constitution literally." Couric's comment marked at least the second time that she has parroted rhetoric conservatives use to promote President Bush's judicial nominees. They frequently create a false dichotomy between strict constructionists, whom they purport to embrace, and "judicial activists," whom they characterize as a blight on the judicial system. But while Couric offered no support for her assessment that Alito is a strict constructionist, by one measure -- the likelihood to restrict Congress' ability to enact legislation -- he has been described as a judicial activist.
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• Conservative media figures repeated false claim that Libby indictment proved no "underlying crime" was committed
  

In the days following the October 28 indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury, and false statements, numerous conservative media figures have asserted that special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation of the CIA leak case found that no underlying crime had been committed. That assertion is false. Fitzgerald has stated only that he was unable to determine whether the alleged leak itself constituted a violation of the law. As set out in the indictment and at his October 28 press conference, Fitzgerald accused Libby of obstructing the grand jury's efforts to investigate the alleged leak, preventing a determination of whether it violated federal law.
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• O'Reilly on caller defending Media Matters, other "nuts": "We should go to their house. ... I can get their addresses when they call in"
  

Referring to callers he called "nuts," Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said on the October 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show that "we should go to their house[s]." He was prompted by a caller who, in a discussion about outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, told O'Reilly, "If you want true, no-spin facts about this case, you can't do better than mediamatters.com [sic]." O'Reilly then replied, "We got another nut on the air," complaining: "That's the worst part of doing this." He then added, "I can get their addresses when they call in. We can trace them back, and we should all go over and surprise them."
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• CNN, NPR failed to note contradictory statements from "liberal" Alito supporter
  

As part of their coverage before and immediately after the October 31 Supreme Court nomination of federal appeals court judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., CNN and National Public Radio (NPR) featured commentary from Lawrence Lustberg, a criminal defense lawyer and acquaintance of Alito who claimed on NPR that Alito "will not overrule precedent lightly" and who on CNN openly supported the nomination. However, neither NPR nor CNN challenged Lustberg with prior statements he has made about Alito, in which he referred to Alito as an "activist conservatist judge" who is "very prosecutorial from the bench."
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• Gelernter misquoted Carter secretary of state in suggesting Democrats are bad for the U.S. military
  

In an October 28 commentary discussing remarks about the state of the Iraq war by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Los Angeles Times conservative columnist David Gelernter misquoted President Jimmy Carter's secretary state in an effort to portray Democrats as willing to weaken U.S. military and security operations for political gain.
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