Media Matters Latest, November 14, 2006

Russert claimed Reid and Pelosi "declined" Meet the Press "invitations," but he apparently asked no other Democrats
As Media Matters for America noted, the November 12 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press -- the program's first airing following the Democratic electoral sweep of Congress -- was scheduled to feature two senators who support the Iraq war: John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman, who won election in Connecticut as an independent, although he has since pledged to caucus with the Democratic Party as an "Independent Democrat." Following host Tim Russert's interviews with McCain and Lieberman, Russert said: "And our viewers should know we extended invitations to the new Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-NV]. Both declined our invitation, but we hope they'll be here on a future Sunday." There were, however, literally hundreds of other Democratic officials and candidates who had just taken part in a historic election, as well as several other Democratic leaders, who did not run as independents and did not appear on other Sunday-morning shows. And, yet, Meet the Press apparently stopped asking after being turned down by its top two choices. Read more

A tale of two covers: Time's '94 postelection cover touted "G.O.P. Stampede," '06 cover asserts "the center is the new place to be"
The November 21, 1994, edition of Time magazine -- published following that year's congressional elections, in which Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate -- featured the headline "G.O.P. Stampede: A Special Report" on the cover, and featured a graphic of an elephant trampling a donkey. Read more


Wash. Post ombudsman Howell misrepresented former Post reporter Edsall's conclusions on media bias
In her column, Deborah Howell misrepresented Thomas Edsall's views on the purported liberalism of most journalists. Although Edsall asserted, as Howell reported, that "most journalists he knew were liberal" during a radio appearance, he explained in a subsequent online chat that, while many of its members are indeed liberal, the press at large is "inclined to lean over backwards not to offend critics from the right" and that the right wing's "campaign against the media ... has turned the press into an unwilling, and often unknowing, ally of the right." Read more

Wallace allowed Bartlett to claim timing of Rumsfeld dismissal was not political, even while Bartlett cited political reasons for timing
On the November 12 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace allowed Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, to claim that President Bush's admitted pre-election lie about Donald H. Rumsfeld staying on as defense secretary until the end of Bush's term was necessary to avoid injecting the issue into the midterm election. During the same interview, however, Bartlett asserted that firing Rumsfeld before the election would have looked "desperate" and "would have weakened the president and Republican support going down the stretch of this campaign." In other words, Bartlett said both that Bush did not want to politicize Rumsfeld's situation and that Bush made a political decision in not firing Rumsfeld before the election. Wallace did not note the apparent contradiction. Read more

CNN's Schneider: McCain's presidential hopes boosted by "a midterm where Iraq was a big issue"
On the November 13 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, senior political analyst Bill Schneider, while discussing how the 2006 congressional elections could affect possible 2008 presidential candidates, asserted that Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) "strong national security credentials are no small thing after a midterm where Iraq was a big issue." But Schneider overlooked the fact that McCain's position on the war appears to be at odds with that of the majority of the American people. McCain is a strong supporter of the Iraq war, and as recently as the November 12 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, restated his position that the United States should send more troops to Iraq: "I believe that there are a lot of things that we can do to salvage this, but they all require the presence of additional troops. [...] I have said from the beginning, my first trip over there, that we needed more troops." However, as Media Matters for America noted, according to CNN's nationwide exit poll for the House races, only 17 percent of voters supported sending more troops to Iraq. By contrast, 55 percent favored withdrawing all or some of U.S. troops in Iraq, and those voters broke for Democrats by lopsided margins. Read more


CBS' Attkisson adopted GOP term "death tax" while reporting on the estate tax
On the November 9 edition of the CBS Evening News, CBS Capitol Hill correspondent Sharyl Attkisson adopted the Republican-preferred name for the estate tax, referring to it as "the death tax." While reporting on Democrats who are likely to lead committees in the House of Representatives, Attkisson noted that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) "is in" as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which could mean "higher taxes on upper-income Americans and perhaps reinstituting the death tax." As Media Matters for America has noted, many conservatives refer to the estate tax as the "death tax," a name that, as Republican pollster Frank Luntz found, polls better for conservatives. Read more


Newsweek suggested Pelosi and Bush similarly unpopular, but left out Bush's three-times-higher negatives
In a November 11 Newsweek online article, with the headline "Feeling Blue?" a caption to a picture accompanying the article compared House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) favorability ratings with President Bush's approval ratings, to suggest that the two were similarly unpopular. The caption asked, "Can They Work Together?" and noted that "Pelosi has 34 percent approval [favorability] ratings, slightly better than Bush's 31 percent [approval]." Similarly, in an article for the November 20 issue of Newsweek, senior writer and political correspondent Jonathan Darman cited Pelosi's "favorable" ratings to assert that Pelosi "is an odd champion of the center." Yet, neither article noted that, according to the most recent Newsweek poll, Bush's job disapproval ratings were more than three times Pelosi's "unfavorable" ratings, that, in sharp distinction with Bush, Pelosi's favorable rating was 14 points higher than her unfavorable, or that a plurality of poll respondents had either "never heard of" Pelosi or had yet to form an opinion of her. Read more

Olbermann: Since Election Day, Countdown's ratings up, O'Reilly's are down
On the November 10 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann noted that while his own ratings have significantly increased since the November 7 midterm elections, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's ratings have gone down. As Olbermann stated, "Not counting Tuesday's election coverage, [O'Reilly's ratings] are down another five percent just from last week. Countdown's, coincidentally, are up another 32 percent. A look at that clichéd but coveted 25-54-year-old audience from last night: The O'Really Factor, 405,000; Countdown, 321,000; CNN, 210,000; Nancy 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' Grace, 200,000. That's right -- we were doing 79 percent of Bill O's business." Olbermann also pointed out that other Fox News shows have slipped since Election Day, stating that Fox News' Fox Report with Shepard Smith finished third in its time slot. Olbermann added, "He [Smith] will be severely punished!" Read more

Russert falsely suggested Sen. Reid opposes the "Office of Public Integrity" and "lobbying reform"
On the November 12 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host and NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert suggested that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV) opposes the creation of an independent Senate Office of Public Integrity and does not support "lobbying reform." During an interview with Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who has promised to caucus with Democrats after running as an independent in the midterm elections, Russert quoted a November 10 Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) claiming Reid has been "touched" by "scandals." He then asked Lieberman: "Why not use, as a condition for your vote for majority leader for Mr. Reid, that he support the Office of Public Integrity and lobbying reform, now?" However, Russert's suggestion that Reid is opposed to the creation of the Office of Public Integrity and "lobbying reform" is false -- Reid introduced lobbying reform legislation in January calling for that office's creation. Read more


Wash. Post, conservative media asserted that Lieberman ran as staunch war supporter, ignored his shifting rhetoric
Following the midterm elections, prominent Republicans and conservative media figures, as well as The Washington Post, dismissed suggestions that the results represented a referendum on Iraq by noting that Connecticut voters re-elected Sen. Joe Lieberman, despite his support for the war. But these attempts to cast Lieberman's victory as a counter to claims that the outcome of the elections was a repudiation of Bush's Iraq policy overlook Lieberman's efforts in the weeks leading up to the election to portray himself as a critic of the war. Read more


CNN's King reported that Martinez had been tapped as RNC chair, omitted Schiavo memo, pattern of blaming staff for missteps
In reporting that Sen. Mel Martinez had accepted an offer to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, CNN's John King failed to mention Martinez's admission in April 2005 that his office had authored a memo touting the Terri Schiavo case as "a great political issue" for Republicans because "the pro-life base will be excited" and it "is a tough issue for Democrats." King also ignored the controversies surrounding Martinez's 2004 Senate campaign. Read more