Media Matters Latest, November 03, 2005

• Robertson: Legislature has right to require husband's notification before his "wife kills their heir"

During an interview with Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes about Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the November 1 broadcast of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, host Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, reflected on the "age" in which he grew up, "where a man wanted a male heir." Referring to Alito's partial dissent in an abortion case, in which Alito argued that a Pennsylvania spousal notification requirement was constitutional, Robertson said, "And it's certainly the prerogative of the Pennsylvania legislature to say these guys at least should get notified before their wife kills their heir."

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• Blitzer adopted White House spin on pledge to fire leakers
  

In covering the aftermath of the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer parroted White House spin on the Bush administration's pledge to fire individuals involved in leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. On the October 31 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Blitzer stressed that President Bush promised to fire "anyone who committed a crime" in leaking Plame's identity. But, in fact, initial pledges by Bush and White House press secretary Scott McCellan were to fire anyone involved in the leak.

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• Thomas, Sowell misleadingly portrayed Libby indictment as case of bad "recollection"
  

In recent articles, syndicated columnists Cal Thomas and Thomas Sowell both misleadingly dismissed the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, as a simple matter of differing recollections. In fact, the indictment on two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements alleges that Libby falsely told a federal grand jury and FBI investigators that he learned from reporters that Valerie Plame (the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV) worked for the CIA. Contrary to Libby's assertion, the indictment alleges that Libby had nine separate discussions with various government officials about Plame, many taking place before his first conversation with reporters on the subject.

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• USA Today op-ed contained falsehood, failed to disclose author's role in drafting "torture memo"
  

In a November 2 USA Today op-ed, former deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo criticized an amendment to the 2006 defense appropriations bill, proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), that prohibits "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of any prisoner in the custody of the U.S. government, and states that no prisoner "shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation." Yoo claimed the amendment's "only real effect would be to limit the interrogation of al-Qaeda terrorists," who "are not prisoners of war under [the] Geneva [Conventions]," and stated that "it would not have prevented the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which were unrelated to interrogations." In fact, the Schlesinger report, compiled from an independent inquiry headed by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger, explicitly states that abuses did occur during interrogations at Abu Ghraib -- meaning the McCain amendment would have applied.

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• Buchanan, Limbaugh joined Matthews in repeating baseless claims about Democratic memo on Alito
  

A series of false characterizations of a Democratic memorandum concerning Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. advanced by MSNBC host Chris Matthews on October 31 continued to reverberate in the media echo chamber on November 1. Media Matters for America documented Matthews's falsehoods on November 1.

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• Media overlooked Sen. Roberts's conflicting statements about investigation into Bush administration's use of intelligence before Iraq war

In reporting Sen. Pat Roberts's (R-KS) response to criticism from Democrats that he has stonewalled the portion of a Senate Intelligence Committee report dedicated to investigating the use -- or misuse -- of intelligence by Bush administration officials in the buildup to the Iraq war, the media overlooked Roberts's history of conflicting statements on the subject. Democrats say that stonewalling by Roberts and Senate Republicans on long-standing demands for an investigation into the use of pre-war intelligence prompted them to take the unusual step of invoking Senate Rule 21 and calling for a closed Senate session on November 1.

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• ABC's Tapper got "Down and Dirty" to attack Media Matters but hit only himself

In a post on his ABC News weblog, ABC correspondent Jake Tapper accused Media Matters for America of "engag[ing] in standards more fit to last-minute political attack ads than to fair and objective journalism." Yet Tapper's post contained the same elements of "last-minute political attack ads" he falsely accused Media Matters of employing.

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• Did decisions by news organizations influence 2004 presidential election?

During his October 28 press conference following the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements, special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald noted that, had witnesses testified "when the subpoenas were issued in August 2004," indictments would have come "in October 2004 instead of October 2005."

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• Initial CNN, Fox coverage of closed Senate session emphasized GOP response over Democratic rationale

In their immediate coverage of the November 1 closed session of the U.S. Senate forced by Democrats under Rule 21 to discuss pre-war intelligence, CNN and Fox News largely omitted statements by Democrats explaining the reasoning behind this rare action, focusing instead on Republican complaints over the invocation of the closed-session rule.

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• Malveaux omitted conservative opposition to Miers's views on abortion, other issues

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux omitted conservative concerns about the political and judicial views of failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, reporting only that "the conservatives, of course, roundly rejected Miers for being someone who was an unqualified Bush crony with a very scant judicial record." In fact, while many conservatives took issue with Miers's qualifications, multiple news outlets have reported that conservatives reacted angrily to reports of two decade-old speeches in which Miers had embraced, among other things, "self-determination" on abortion.

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• O'Reilly asks female co-host to protest in bikini; Hume says he dressed up for DaySide co-host Huddy

Fox News hosts Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly recently turned their attention to their female co-hosts, remarking on their appearance, with O'Reilly asking the co-host of his nationally syndicated radio show, Lis Wiehl, to protest outside CBS studios in a bikini. Hume, appearing on Fox News' DaySide, told co-host Juliet Huddy that he dressed up for just for her, stating: "One more chance for a man my age to be on with Juliet Huddy."

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