Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Media Matters Latest, December 06, 2006

On MSNBC, Prager continued to baselessly attack Muslim Rep.-elect
On the December 4 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, conservative radio host and Townhall.com columnist Dennis Prager continued to accuse incoming Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) of "imperil[ing]" America because of Ellison's reported intention to use a copy of the Quran during the ceremonial photo op on the day he is sworn in. Prager acknowledged, as the weblog Think Progress reported, that Ellison would use the Quran for "a photo op" and not the actual swearing-in, which is conducted in a large group. Ellison is the first Muslim ever elected to Congress. Read more

Radio host Mark Williams on imams thrown off flight: "[T]hese people want us dead"
Mark Williams stated the six imams removed from a November 20 US Airways flight "are one of two things. ... They are either terrorists or they're trying to cash in on the politically correct lottery," in that the imams could "get themselves thrown off the plane, and sue." Williams added, "[T]hese people want us dead. ... I don't want this guy as my neighbor." Read more

In articles on Bolton resignation, four major newspapers failed to quote a single Senate opponent
In December 5 articles on the resignation of United Nations ambassador John R. Bolton, four major newspapers -- The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today -- reported Bush's response blasting the "stubborn obstructionism" of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members who opposed his nomination, but failed to quote a single one of these senators or otherwise explaining their opposition. Read more

Fox's Angle ignored U.N. critics of Bolton
On the December 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle attributed the resignation of United Nations ambassador John R. Bolton to the Bush administration's inability to find an "easy way around" the "unyielding enemies in Senate" who opposed Bolton. Angle did not mention the many U.N. officials who reportedly expressed disapproval with Bolton, who was given a recess appointment by President Bush in 2005 after his nomination failed in the Senate. Read more

Rep. Wolf's '05 Iraq report and op-ed undermined NPR claim that Wolf "decided" then that war "not going well"
In introducing her interview with Rep. Frank Wolf, National Public Radio's Deborah Amos stated that, after his 2005 trip to Iraq, Wolf "decided the [Iraq] war was not going well," and "came up with the idea for an independent panel to analyze U.S. policy," which "became the Baker-Hamilton Study Group." In fact, shortly after his return, Wolf wrote an official trip report and an op-ed in which he stressed that "real progress is being made [in Iraq], despite the ongoing security concerns." Read more

NY Times reported Gates' denial that U.S. is winning in Iraq, but not Bush claim that it is
In a December 5 online article reporting the statement by Robert M. Gates, President Bush's nominee for defense secretary, that the United States is currently not winning in Iraq, The New York Times did not report that Gates' assertion, which he made in front of the Senate Armed Service Committee during his December 5 confirmation hearing, contradicts a statement Bush made as recently as October 25 that "absolutely, we're winning" in Iraq. Read more

On Hardball, Brokaw exaggerated McCain's independence from Bush
On Hardball, Tom Brokaw asserted that what makes Sen. John McCain "appealing" is that "[i]t's hard to track him. He's there with his arm around the president one moment and standing back and lobbing grenades then at the next minute." Brokaw made no mention of the fact that, while McCain has taken highly publicized stands against President Bush, he has also eventually capitulated in several of those instances. Read more

Fox's Gibson highlighted Romney policy on illegal immigrants with no mention of Globe disclosure
John Gibson hosted a discussion about Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's effort to allow state police to detain illegal immigrants, but no one on the show mentioned a recent report saying Romney used a landscaping company that relies heavily on illegal immigrants. Read more

NBC's Mitchell: Bush's reversals are "pragmatic" -- but Kerry's changes were "flip-flops"
NBC's Andrea Mitchell asserted that President Bush "has proved he can be pragmatic," citing instances in which Bush has reversed course on major policy and staff decisions. But during the 2004 presidential campaign, Mitchell uncritically repeated GOP characterizations of purported shifts by Sen. John Kerry as "flip-flops." Read more

Olbermann: Savage "Worst Person" runner-up for attack on Ellison
On the December 4 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage runner-up in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for asking -- as Media Matters for America documented -- in response Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's (D-MN) reported intention to use a copy of the Quran during the ceremonial photo op on the day he is sworn in: "What's next, a witch gets elected, and she says she's only going to be sworn in with her hand over a pentagram?" Olbermann then observed that "members of Congress are not officially sworn in on a Bible, a Quran, or even a copy of the Worst Person in the World book." Savage is a frequent honoree during Olbermann's "Worst Person" segment and recently received "worst person" honors for claiming that his anti-gay comments would appear "in several of the blogs run by gays -- and they think only of that 'cause they're like drug addicts," as Media Matters also noted. Read more

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