Saturday, December 23, 2006

Media Matters Latest, December 23, 2006

Blitzer: Ellison [not Goode or Prager] "touched off a raging controversy"
Wolf Blitzer attributed the "raging controversy" over Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's reported intention to use a copy of the Quran in his swearing-in ceremony to Ellison rather than those who have denounced Ellison. Read more

On MSNBC, Jacobus thought it "strange" to focus on Rep. Goode's bigoted remarks instead of Muslim Rep.-elect's use of Quran
On the December 21 edition of MSNBC News Live, Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus said she thought it was "a little bit strange" that "we're focusing on" controversial remarks by Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) instead of Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), whom Jacobus called "a newly elected member of Congress trying to cause controversy." As the weblog TPMMuckraker noted, the weblog Waldo Jaquith posted a letter by Goode saying: "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America." In the letter, Goode also attacked Ellison: "[I]f American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran." Ellison reportedly intends to use a copy of the Quran presumably during the ceremonial photo op on the day he is sworn in. Read more


From the White House's mouth to CNN's ... mouth?
CNN's adoption of the phrase "listening mode" to describe President Bush's reaction to the Iraq Study Group report is just the latest example of CNN journalists' repeating White House phrases without challenge and reporting Bush administration talking points as fact. Read more
Wash. Post suggested that Dems need to "restore" image among minorities, working class, womenIn a December 22 article by staff writer Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post reported that the "four days of celebration surrounding" Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) January 4, 2006, swearing-in as House speaker is part of an effort "to restore the [Democratic] party's image as one hospitable to ethnic minorities, families, religion, the working class and women." Implicit in Layton's claim is the assumption that support for Democrats among each of these groups is in need of restoration. In fact, national exit polls from the 2006 midterm elections show that in three out of these five demographics -- minorities, members of the working class, and women -- a significant majority of voters supported Democrats. Further, while most Protestants voted Republican, a majority of those identified as Catholic or Jewish favored Democrats. Indeed, the only demographic groups encompassed by the Post's categories in which Republicans had a clear majority were married people with children and voters who identified themselves as weekly churchgoers: Read more

Matthews: Gore is "the Hindenburg"
On the December 21 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley if former Vice President Al Gore was "in fighting weight" and then said of Gore: "He's the Hindenburg." Read more

Your World smackdown: Guest flatly refuted Asman claim that he is "all for" global warming
On the December 21 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, an on-screen graphic read: " 'Global Warming': Great for Business & Economy?" during guest host David Asman's interview with Michael Farr, president of the investment firm Farr, Miller & Washington, about the positive effects of mild winters on the economy. When Asman said that "my next guest says if what's happening in New York is global warming, he's all for it," Farr responded, "Well, now, hang on, David. First of all, global warming is a very serious issue, and it could have devastating effects. That we are having a milder winter is a really good thing for the economy, and milder winters are always pretty good." Farr later added, "Global warming is not a good thing. Global warming is a tremendously bad thing." Read more


Only on Fox: Panel discussed video of "Rep. Ancy Lagosi" attacking FDR during WWII
The "All-Star Panel" segment on the December 21 edition of Fox News' Special Report contained a clip from This Is DNN, a "satirical video" in which World War II-era "Congresswoman and House leader Ancy Lagosi" attacks the war and then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the segment of This Is DNN that aired on Special Report, "Lagosi" says that "250,000 of our finest [have come] home in wooden boxes ... [t]o support a lie." When "Lagosi" asks, "What has Germany and Italy got to do with Pearl Harbor?" the audience at her speech responds, "Nothing!" and then chants, "Roosevelt lied, millions died." Special Report host and Fox News Washington bureau managing editor Brit Hume described the film as "filled with sepia-toned scenes from ... what purports to be an old newsreel of modern-style coverage of World War II." He then asked the panel, "[I]s that a realistic picture of what it might have been like if today's politics and today's news media coverage had prevailed in World War II?" Read more

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