Limbaugh's knee-jerk response to "Fort Dix Six": "[C]ould it be" Clinton's fault?
On the May 9 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, discussing the alleged conspiracy to attack Fort Dix, N.J., Rush Limbaugh baselessly speculated that the 1998-1999 resettlement program for Kosovar refugees from the Balkans could have brought several of the alleged conspirators to the United States: "The Clinton administration may have brought these people -- we don't know if five of the six were in part of this group, but oh, man!" In fact, only one of the six individuals involved in the alleged Fort Dix plot was reportedly part of the Kosovo refugee program. Limbaugh has yet to acknowledge that his speculation was wrong. Read more
O'Reilly claimed his producer's specious op-ed piece "destroyed" IU study
On the May 10 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly claimed Factor producer Ron Mitchell "has blown the lid off" an Indiana University (IU) study that found O'Reilly engages in name-calling in his "Talking Points Memo" segments once every 6.8 seconds. Referring to an op-ed Mitchell wrote that appeared on the Los Angeles Times website, O'Reilly told viewers that Mitchell "just destroyed" the study, and criticized the Times for posting Mitchell's op-ed online and not publishing it in its print edition. But as Media Matters for America documented, Mitchell's op-ed contains a significant falsehood. Read more
Savage accused Rep. Hinchey of being "in cahoots with Al Qaeda"
On the May 9 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, while reading from a May 9 National Review article on the six Muslim men arrested for plotting an attack on the Fort Dix military base, Michael Savage called Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) a "rotten, stinking, verminous congressman." Then, purporting to address Hinchey, Savage said: "By the time I get through with you, if you should call me to Congress, I'll have you in prison, because you're in cahoots with Al Qaeda. You are enabling Al Qaeda," adding, "You are a threat to our national security, as are all the other left-wingers who have signed that edict against -- that fatwa against Michael Savage, and [conservative radio host] Rush Limbaugh, and the others who want to disseminate the truth." Read more
Wash. Post's Kurtz reprinted right-wing attacks on Sebelius, omitted contrary evidence
In his "Media Notes" column, Howard Kurtz uncritically reprinted responses by conservative bloggers to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' (D) assertion that the Kansas National Guard was not able to respond quickly to the Greensburg tornado because much of its equipment is deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kurtz did not cite statistics reported in a New York Times article that support Sebelius' claim -- an article he had previously mentioned -- much less try to sort out the merits of the competing claims. Read more
Olbermann "Worst Person" awards: O'Reilly for French "boycott" misinformation, PBS NewsHour for Melanie Morgan
On the May 10 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the "winner" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for repeatedly misrepresenting the purported effects of his boycott of France, which he called for in March 2003 because of France's opposition to the Iraq war. As Media Matters for America documented, on the May 7 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly declared that "The Factor is lifting the boycott of France" due to the recent election of Nicolas Sarkozy as France's next president. Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment