Glenn Beck stated that an alleged incident in which a protester supposedly spit "at the ground near" a wounded Iraq war veteran -- Beck asserted that the veteran was "spit on" -- was a "reminder to all of us about a promise we made to ourselves, or should have" and repeatedly suggested that the incident echoed similar actions toward Vietnam War veterans returning to the United States," despite contradictory accounts of the incident and a lack of evidence that similar incidents did, in fact, occur during the Vietnam War. Read more
Politico contradicted its own report that McCain resolution will "criticiz[e]" Iraq troop escalation
A January 31 Politico article by Capitol bureau chief John Bresnahan claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is drafting a resolution on President Bush's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq "that, while criticizing the surge, would offer support for the president and the U.S. military campaign in Iraq." This report, however, has been contradicted by several other news reports, including a February 1 Politico article containing Bresnahan's byline that noted McCain and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) "have drafted a resolution that supports the president's plan to deploy 21,500 more troops in Iraq." Read more
Wash. Times mischaracterized Democratic senators' positions on troop withdrawal
The Washington Times suggested that Sens. Harry Reid, John Kerry, and Joe Biden changed their views on the need for additional troops in Iraq only after President Bush announced his plan to send more troops to Iraq on January 10. In fact, in June 2006 -- well before Bush embraced a "surge" -- all three senators supported an amendment that called for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to begin by the end of 2006. Read more
On MSNBC, Viqueira asserted that political "center" supports Bush Iraq policy
On the February 1 edition of MSNBC's The Most, NBC News correspondent Mike Viqueira asserted that Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (CT) is "more towards the center, more aligned with the president on Iraq." Lieberman announced his support for President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq in a January 15 press release, but supporting the president and his plan do not appear to be positions held by the "center," or the average voter, according to recent polling. Read more
O'Reilly asks: Do you think ACLU people are "traitors"?
Discussing the arrest warrants a German court had issued that day for 13 CIA agents in connection with the kidnapping of German citizen Khaled El-Masri and his lawsuit against former CIA Director George Tenet and others, filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Bill O'Reilly asked CBS News terrorism analyst Michael Scheuer on the January 31 edition of Fox News' The O'Reillly Factor: "Do you think these people are traitors, the ACLU? Are they putting us all in danger?" Scheuer replied that "they have a right to their opinion" but asserted, "[T]hey're very lucky that most Americans are willing to fight to protect their ability to denigrate America." O'Reilly then stated that the ACLU "go[es] beyond that" and that, actually, "they put us in danger." Scheuer agreed, saying: "Oh, I think they do. I think that's certainly true, sir." Read more
Imus to Gov. Richardson: "Besa mi culo"
On the February 1 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus offered a message to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM): "Besa mi culo," which loosely translates as "kiss my ass" in Spanish. Imus was talking about his frustration with officials in New Mexico, and particularly in the governor's office, over a project that he described as "renovating a school in ... Ribera, New Mexico, to provide a community center for a devastated part of New Mexico." After calling Richardson "that fat governor," Imus said, "How 'bout if I whip your fat ass, Bill?" before an unidentified voice said "Besa mi culo," which Imus echoed. Later in the program, Imus referred to Richardson as "Gordo," which is Spanish for "fat one." Richardson's mother is Mexican. Read more
ABC misled with coverage of Bush interview, repeated Bush myth: "I know you don't love polls"
An ABCNews.com article about Betsy Stark's interview with President Bush reported only that Bush stated he "does not plan to invade" Iran; however, during the interview, Bush said he had not "ruled out military action in Iran." Read more
On the February 1 broadcast of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, NPR national desk reporter Martin Kaste purported to offer the views of "constitutional scholars watching" the case involving the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) challenge to the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program. But the only source he quoted as a "constitutional scholar[]"was Douglas Kmiec, and the only identifier Kaste gave for him was as a law professor at Pepperdine University. Kaste made no mention of the numerous prominent legal scholars who take the plaintiffs' side against the government in the case, much less provide any "constitutional scholars" who disagree with the specific issue that Kmiec was addressing. Nor did Kaste mention any of several other pertinent facts: that Kmiec defended the wiretapping program in February 2006 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that he held a position in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations as assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, or that he endorsed Alberto R. Gonzales for attorney general. Read more
Who are Sen. Clinton's "evil men"? Media mind-readers can't agree
At a January 28 campaign stop in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) responded to an audience member's question about her qualifications for dealing with "evil" men abroad by saying: "Well, the question really is, we face a lot of dangers in the world and, in the gentleman's words, we face a lot of evil men, you know, people like Osama bin Laden comes to mind," adding: "And what, in my background, equips me to deal with evil and bad men?" This latter response provoked laughter from the audience, and numerous media outlets, personalities, and pundits have tried to analyze what Clinton meant or simply asserted what the audience interpreted Clinton to have meant. Many suggested she was referring to her husband, former President Bill Clinton, while others suggested that she could have been referring to "tormentors on the domestic front," former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, or President Bush. Read more
Blankley contended Biden got "a pass" from media on story that broke hours earlier
During a discussion of comments by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) to The New York Observer about Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley said of Biden on the January 31 edition of MSNBC's Hardball: "I think he's getting, more or less, a pass from the mainstream media on this." Blankley also said that "[i]f a conservative Republican had said this, I think the media would've jumped down his throat." But even before Blankey made his comments, MSNBC itself had extensively been covering Biden's gaffe; and, at the time of Blankley's comments, the networks had yet to broadcast the nightly news and the major daily newspapers had not had a chance to report on the story in print, as it had broken only that morning. Read more
ABC aired Limbaugh as "observer" on race issues in Biden controversy
On the January 31 edition of ABC's World News, during a report on Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s (D-DE) controversial description of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), senior national correspondent Jake Tapper cited radio host Rush Limbaugh as an "[o]bserver" who "questioned what Biden meant, especially by the word 'clean.' " Tapper aired an audio clip of Limbaugh saying, "And see, folks, this is the problem for the libs. Once they get off script, they expose their idiocy. They expose their prejudice." Tapper paired Limbaugh's comments with remarks by civil rights activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. Read more
Headline, lede of Politico article suggested Dem is strong-arming GOP lobbyists -- only later noted his actions are bipartisan
In a February 1 Politico article, "Democratic Congressman Tries to Force Firing of GOP Lobbyists," congressional reporter Patrick O'Connor reported that Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) and other "Texas Democrats in the House are pressuring" the Texas Department of Transportation "to fire two Republican lobbyists in an episode that echoes the heavy-handed GOP tactics Democrats criticized when they were in the minority." However, later in the same article, O'Connor reported that Green "also raised questions about the state agency's recent hiring of two Democratic lobbyists" and "suggested that the agency should sever its ties" with them -- undermining his suggestion in the first paragraph that the Democrats' tactics are reminiscent of Republican partisanship. Read more
While noting budget complaints, AP ignored GOP's failure to pass spending bills in '06
In a February 1 Associated Press article on the passage of a $463.5 billion spending bill in the House of Representatives, staff writer Andrew Taylor reported that there were "hard feelings" among congressional Republicans "over how Democrats powered the bill through the House: just an hour of debate time, no amendments allowed." But the article ignored the reason why the stopgap measure was necessary: prior to the close of the 109th Congress in 2006, the Republican congressional majority decided not to deal with nine spending bills -- a fact that Taylor himself reported at the time and that Democrats repeatedly cited in response to Republican complaints about the budget process. Read more
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