"Where's Nancy?" Trajectory of a GOP smear on Pelosi
A political attack that started with a posting on the website of Rep. John Boehner's political action committee -- promoting the claim that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has made no recent public appearances -- then moved to the Drudge Report website and ended up in reports on Fox News and MSNBC, with MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell asking of Pelosi, "Where's she been the last week?" Read more
Top election falsehoods, myths, and talking points
As the November 7 midterm elections approach, the increasing media coverage has carried with it an onslaught of conservative misinformation. Media Matters for America has compiled some of the more common examples below. Read more
NBC's Lauer asked Card if he "question[s] the timing" of NY Times report on Internet posting of nuke information; MSNBC's O'Donnell wondered whether story "helps the administration"
Matt Lauer asked former White House chief of staff Andrew Card whether he "question[s] the timing" of a New York Times report that documents that weapons experts say "constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb" were posted on a government website functioning as a clearinghouse for documents found in Iraq. Separately, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell asked NBC's Andrea Mitchell if the report "helps the [Bush] administration by reminding people about potential weapons of mass destruction that were developed before the first Gulf War." Read more
Fox's Gibson touted "Kerry equals" chart, warned of a "Kerry-esque Congress"
During an interview with former White House chief of staff Andrew Card on the November 2 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson asked Card whether the uproar over Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) "botched joke" would have an impact on the November 7 midterm elections. Card claimed Kerry's remark "has given us some new momentum" but added that "this election is more than about a short-term experience that John Kerry might have had." Then, a graphic appeared onscreen -- what Gibson called a "little equation ... a 'Kerry equals' " chart -- showing a picture of Kerry followed by an "equals" sign and then images of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, separated by "plus" signs. Gibson then asked Card: "Is this what you're trying to say ... that's what you're going to get is Kerry-esque Congress?" Read more
On CNN, Falwell declared Foley scandal "minuscule in comparison" to having "lived through Bill Clinton"; no follow-up from Zahn
On the November 2 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Moral Majority Coalition founder and chairman Rev. Jerry Falwell declared that the scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) is "not going to discourage any evangelicals I know from voting" because "[w]e lived through Bill Clinton, and this situation with Foley is minuscule in comparison." Co-host Paula Zahn did not follow up on Falwell's assertion or note a major difference between the two cases, as Media Matters for America has noted: Foley allegedly sent sexually explicit Internet communications to underage former House pages, while former President Bill Clinton had an affair with an adult. Read more
Intent on propping up liberal-media myth, Hume, O'Reilly, and Beck complained about coverage of Kerry flap
In recent days, Brit Hume, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck have all asserted that media bias was to blame for a dearth of coverage on the controversy surrounding Sen. John Kerry's "botched joke." To the contrary, the story has consistently been the top story on network- and cable-news broadcasts and has been the subject of front-page stories in most major newspapers. Read more
MSNBC's Shuster made no distinction between true and misleading claims when discussing "five nastiest ads" run during election
MSNBC's David Shuster invited viewers to vote on the "nastiest" campaign advertisement among the "the five nastiest ads" culled by Shuster. However, Shuster's focus on "nast[iness]" obscured questions about the advertisements' accuracy; he also included on his list two Democratic advertisements that are based upon reported facts. In a discussion following one airing of Shuster's segment, CNBC's Donny Deutsch misrepresented one of the Democratic ads. Read more
Fox & Friends hosts touted WorldNetDaily, NY Sun allegations that terrorists "hope Americans sweep the Democrats into power because of the party's position on withdrawawing from Iraq"
Fox & Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson touted articles on right-wing website WorldNetDaily.com and in the The New York Sun purporting to show that, in Carlson's words, "[s]enior terrorist leaders" have indicated "that they hope Americans sweep the Democrats into power because of the party's position on withdrawawing from Iraq." Read more
Blitzer failed to challenge Talent on denial that he is a "stay the course" senator
CNN host Wolf Blitzer failed to challenge Sen. Jim Talent's denial that he is a " 'stay the course' senator," even though Talent has repeatedly used the expression "stay the course" to describe his position on the Iraq war and his support for legislation declaring that "the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq." Read more
On MSNBC, Russert uncritically relayed Bush administration claim it "had nothing to do with timing" of Hussein verdict
Discussing the pending release of a verdict in the trial of Saddam Hussein, during the November 3 edition of MSNBC's Decision 2006: Battleground America, NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, uncritically reported that Bush administration officials "said that they had nothing to do with the timing" of the verdict, which is scheduled to be announced on the morning of November 5, two days before the midterm elections. In response, Washington Post staff writer Dana Milbank joked that it was "clearly an attempt to manipulate Meet the Press, and I can't imagine you're going to stand for that." But no member of the panel, which also included political and social commentator Mike Barnicle, pointed out that, as Media Matters for America has noted, if the administration did in fact insist on the November 5 date for the verdict, this would not be the first time it has apparently timed an Iraq- or national security-related event for political advantage. While the Bush administration has denied any role in setting the date, as the weblog Think Progress has noted, when asked about the verdict on the November 2 edition of CNBC's Kudlow and Company, White House press secretary Tony Snow said, "You are absolutely right, it will be a factor" in the U.S. elections. Read more
NPR's Liasson, Slate's Dickerson, Time's Cox all downplayed Haggard's significance
Although Rev. Ted Haggard was the pastor of a 14,000-member church and president of "the largest evangelical group in America," as well as a regular member of weekly conference calls with the Bush administration, National Public Radio's Mara Liasson, Slate's John Dickerson, and Time's Ana Marie Cox all downplayed the political impact of recent allegations that he solicited sex and drugs from a male prostitute. Read more
CNN's Harris gushed over new economic figures as "Christmas com[ing] early for congressional Republicans," ignored their downside
During an interview with White House counselor Dan Bartlett, CNN's Tony Harris touted newly released unemployment figures while ignoring the negative news -- that the job creation rate for the month of October fell well short of expectations. Harris also failed to challenge Bartlett's claims that Democrats would raise taxes if they win control of Congress; that the wealthy "are paying more as a percentage of taxes than they did before the tax relief"; and that Democrats must raise taxes because "it's fundamentally within their DNA to spend money." Read more
CNN's Malveaux baselessly claimed host of southern and western states are "friendly territory" for Bush
On the November 3 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, reporting on President Bush's "all-out campaign blitz" in the days leading up to the November 7 midterm elections, baselessly claimed that the southern and western states to which Bush is traveling constitute "red states" and "friendly territory." Malveaux reported that Bush's itinerary includes trips to Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas, all states that Bush "won two years ago." But in referring to these states as "friendly territory," Malveaux ignored polling in each of the states that shows Bush has higher disapproval ratings than approval ratings. Read more
Tony Perkins: "liberals," like (military volunteer) Kerry, "don't have an understanding" of why Americans "would volunteer"
On the November 2 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins declared that a recent "botched joke" by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) "shows that many of the liberals just don't have an understanding of how there are people that have such commitment to this country that they would volunteer to defend the ways and the ideas of this nation." As Media Matters for America has noted, Kerry himself volunteered for military service and, in February 1968, requested Swift boat duty in Vietnam. Read more
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