Kristol and Kagan falsely claimed exit polls showed public evenly split on "pullout from Iraq"
In their column for the December 11 issue of The Weekly Standard, editor William Kristol and contributing editor Robert Kagan wrote that they "were struck by exit polls [from the midterm election] that showed the public was equally concerned with a too-precipitous pullout from Iraq, suggesting the American people know quite well what is at stake in the war there." In fact, the national exit poll conducted for the Associated Press and the leading broadcast and cable news organizations found that a majority of "the American public" was in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq. Read more
Wash. Post uncritically cited Will's distortion of Post's reporting on Bush/Webb exchange
The Washington Post, in citing Post columnist George F. Will in a news article claiming that an "icy exchange between President Bush and Virginia Sen.-elect James Webb" has "angered conservatives," failed to note that Will, in his column on the incident, left out a key part of an earlier Post account of the conversation between Bush and Webb in order to assert that Webb showed "calculated rudeness." Read more
Wash. Times editorial falsely claimed Levin supports deadline for withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq
A December 4 Washington Times editorial falsely claimed that Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has "advocated ... a date-certain timeline for withdrawing" all U.S. combat troops from Iraq. In fact, Levin has proposed that a phased withdrawal begin in four to six months, but has not proposed any specific timetable for the completion of that withdrawal. Read more
CBS, AP, LA Times failed to challenge Hadley's dismissal of Rumsfeld memo
In reporting on Sunday talk-show appearances by national security adviser Stephen Hadley, several media outlets reported Hadley's characterization of a classified memo from Donald Rumsfeld as simply a "laundry list of ideas" about the U.S. presence in Iraq, and "not a proposal for a new course of action." However, Rumsfeld wrote in the memo, "In my view it is time for a major adjustment"; in the memo, Rumsfeld also created a category of preferred options, with "modest troop withdrawals" among them. Read more
Four of six major papers left out prescient warnings in coverage of 2002 Iraq war vote
A December 4 Washington Post article pointed out that the newspaper's own reporting from October 2002 on the House's passage of the Iraq war resolution failed to quote a single Democrat expressing concerns about "postwar challenges," though many had done so. Media Matters found that contemporaneous articles from three other major print outlets also left out any mention of such warnings. Read more
NY Times' Kristof: "Christian Right has largely retreated from the culture wars"
In his December 3 New York Times column (subscription required), Nicholas D. Kristof condemned the "fundamentalist" writings of atheists such as Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins and author Sam Harris, claiming that "the tone of this Charge of the Atheist Brigade is often just as intolerant -- and mean" as that of Christian conservatives. Kristof concluded his column by claiming that "the Christian Right has largely retreated from the culture wars," adding that he hopes "that the Atheist Left doesn't revive them." Kristof provided no support for his assertion. Nor did he explain how it squares with recent actions by Christian conservative leaders. For example: Read more
In "Eight for '08" series, Chris Matthews Show followed McCain gush-fest by bashing Hillary Clinton
Two weeks after gushing over John McCain's likely presidential bid, the host and panelists on The Chris Matthews Show concluded that some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's greatest perceived strengths as a presidential candidate were really weaknesses. Read more
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