NY Times falsely reported that McCain denounced controversial Tennessee attack ad
An October 27 New York Times article reported that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was among those offering "denunciations" of a controversial Republican National Committee (RNC) advertisement featuring a scantily clad actress posing as someone who "met" Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Harold Ford Jr. "at the Playboy party." In fact, the Times article went on to quote a McCain spokesman saying simply: "We're pleased that the ad has been pulled down" -- a statement that in no way constitutes a "denunciation" of the ad's content. Read more
Limbaugh "apologize[d]" for being "wrong" that Michael J. Fox "didn't take his medication," then suggested Fox over-medicated himself "so you would really, really hate Republicans"
During the October 26 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh "apologize[d]" for being "wrong" in "speculat[ing]" that actor Michael J. Fox either "didn't take his medication or he was acting" in a recent campaign advertisement for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, but then immediately returned to attacking Fox by baselessly accusing him of intentionally taking too much medication to induce the tremors visible in the ad. Highlighting an October 25 interview Fox gave on NBC's Access Hollywood, during which, Limbaugh stated, Fox "himself said he took too much medication" before shooting the McCaskill ad, Limbaugh declared: "He didn't do that when he goes on Boston Legal, but it happened for the taping of this ad; and I think the reason for that is so you would really, really hate Republicans." In fact, while Fox acknowledged on Access Hollywood that his tremors were a result of having taken "too much medication," he did not say he had intentionally done so. Indeed, after Limbaugh's remark, Fox appeared on the October 26 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and confirmed that the tremors he had experienced during the taping of the ad occurred because it is difficult to "calculate" the correct dosage of medication and, "[s]ometimes, it kicks in too hard." Read more
Carlson praised Kinky Friedman, denounced Ford Jr., over religion-themed ads
While discussing a new campaign ad by Rep. Harold Ford Jr., in which Ford appears in a church, Tucker Carlson criticized Ford for "drag[ging] religion into the political arena." He added that "it's wrong, it's immoral, indeed, Democrats have argued, to imply that God's on your side." But Carlson praised an ad by Kinky Friedman, in which Friedman "quot[ed] Jesus from the Gospel of John." Carlson said, "I'm for it." Read more
Bennett, Christie revived dubious claim that Steele "had Oreos thrown at him" to defend RNC ad former Sec. Cohen called "overt[ly] racist"
Responding to criticism of an RNC ad attacking Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Harold Ford Jr. -- an ad described by former Republican senator and Secretary of Defense William Cohen as "overt[ly] racist" -- CNN political analyst Bill Bennett and Ron Christie, former special assistant to President Bush, revived the dubious claim that, in 2002, Maryland Senate candidate and lieutenant governor Michael Steele (R), who is an African-American, "had Oreos thrown at him" by Democrats as a racial insult. In fact, there is significant evidence that calls into question the Oreo cookie claims. Read more
Dennis Miller's "Real Free Speech": Nancy Pelosi a "nimrod" who is "intellectually ... not up to the task" of being speaker
In his October 26 "Real Free Speech" commentary, a recurring weekly segment on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, "comedian" and Fox News contributor Dennis Miller attacked House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), calling her "intellectually ... not up to the task" of assuming the position of speaker of the House in the event that Democrats gain enough seats in the midterm elections to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Miller further assailed Pelosi as a "nimrod," "a C-minus, D-plus applicant ... who no doubt would have been drummed out of the Mary Kay corps after an initial four-week evaluation period." He also accused Pelosi of "regurgitating the Democratic talking points that she had to learn phonetically because the word 'grasp' is not even vaguely in her vocabulary." Read more
Coulter misstated midterm election history, declared Democrats will "go away as a party" if they don't achieve what would be historic gains in House
On Fox News, Ann Coulter asserted that Democrats "ought to be picking up 60 or 70 seats" in the House of Representatives in this November's midterm elections or "they may as well go away as a party." Coulter based her assertion about Democratic gains on her false claim that "[t]he average of the midterm election pickup since World War II is about 40 seats." In fact, since World War II, the average gain in the House after a midterm election has been about 25 seats. Read more
NY Times falsely suggested Lieberman isn't invited to fourth debate; in fact, he refused to participate
In an October 27 article, New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore falsely suggested that Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont and Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger are meeting in a debate next week from which incumbent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who is running as the representative of his own party, was excluded. In fact, Lieberman was invited but has refused to appear at the debate -- despite reportedly "call[ing] for more debates" during the last one. Read more
CNN's Mary Snow falsely characterized debate over campaign ad as "he said, she said"
On the October 26 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, correspondent Mary Snow uncritically reported a claim in an advertisement by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) that Democrat Michael Arcuri, who is running to replace retiring Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), "billed taxpayers for a call to a phone sex hotline." Snow then stated, "Arcuri says the number was on a phone bill because an aide called a sex hotline by mistake that had similar digits to a government office," but she failed to point out that Arcuri has released records that back up his claim and that Arcuri's Republican opponent has denounced the ad. Read more
Self-identified non-partisan Beck: Democrats taking control of Congress "sounds scary"
After previous attempts to cast himself as nonpartisan, Glenn Beck claimed on the October 26 edition of his CNN Headline News program that "[t]he reason that I mostly vote Republican is because it's been the party that most reflects my values, or has been in the past." Later in the program, Beck added that "it sounds scary, but it looks like the Democrats stand a decent chance of taking control" of Congress. Read more
National Review's Spruiell attacked Olbermann for saying "Mr. Bush" -- how does he feel about his boss writing it?
National Review media writer Stephen Spruiell asserted that Keith Olbermann's "insistence on calling the president 'Mr. Bush' instead of 'President Bush' is his way of saying that Bush holds office illegitimately." Given that Spruiell purports to have determined why Olbermann refers to the president as "Mr. Bush," Media Matters for America wonders if he has determined why National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. also refers to the president in the same manner. Read more
MSNBC's Buchanan claimed RNC ad isn't "racist" because "Ford is a guy that likes Playboy bunnies. Almost all of them are white"
On the October 26 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan argued "I don't take" a Republican National Committee (RNC) ad against Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. "as racist at all," because "Harold Ford is a guy that likes Playboy bunnies. Almost all of them are white." As Media Matters for America has noted, the ad, which was released October 20, features a scantily clad white woman posing as someone who "met" Ford "at the Playboy party" who, looks into the camera, purporting to address Ford, an African-American, asking him to "call" her. As the Los Angeles Times noted, "Critics said the ad ... plays on fears of interracial relationships to scare some white voters in rural Tennessee." Former Republican senator and Secretary of Defense William Cohen, on the October 23 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, said the ad made "a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment," and NAACP Washington Bureau chairman Hilary O. Shelton also has denounced the advertisement. Read more
NY Times' Healy falsely suggested that Sen. Clinton shifted position on gay marriage, then corrected himself; MSNBC followed suit
The New York Times' Patrick Healy reported that Sen. Hillary Clinton had said she "would support a gay marriage law in New York" and suggested that she had changed her position from her previous opposition to same-sex marriage -- an account that MSNBC's Chris Jansing echoed. Healy later amended his report to say that Clinton had said she "would not stand against a gay marriage law" and appeared on MSNBC to "correct the record." But he failed to acknowledge that his own flawed original reporting may have led to MSNBC's inaccurate report. Read more
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