Scarborough, et al., aghast over Obama advocacy of age-appropriate sex ed, but never spell it out
On the July 19 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough discussed an ABC News report on comments Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) made at a Planned Parenthood event, which appeared under the headline "Sex Ed for Kindergartners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama." Scarborough said, "I'm gonna tell you why Democrats don't get elected president regularly, all right? Because they say things that lend themselves to the type of headlines, this Associated Press headline, and you gotta be careful." Scarborough, co-host Mika Brzezinski, and guest John Ridley, an NPR contributor, proceeded to sharply criticize Obama -- with Brzezinski exclaiming, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" and Scarborough and Ridley sharply questioning Obama's political judgment. None, however, actually spelled out what Obama was advocating.
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On CNN, Air America's Flanders said Obama has "kind of become the female" candidate, while Clinton has "the balls"
On the July 18 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Air America Radio host Laura Flanders said of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), "he's kind of become the female on this race. It's very interesting. He's seen as the weaker -- cute, attractive." Flanders then said of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), "Hillary is the one with the balls." Host Lou Dobbs responded, "Well, Laura, my goodness." The comments came after Flanders noted that daytime television host Oprah Winfrey was supporting Obama while, according to Flanders, Oprah's mother "is 100 percent for Hillary." Read more
After repeated attacks on Obama, Carlson claimed: "I don't spend my time trashing the guy"
On the July 18 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, while discussing Sen. Barack Obama's July 18 speech on urban poverty, host Tucker Carlson responded to New York Times international business editor Marcus Mabry's assertion that Obama was "talking about ways to give fathers the ways and means to be responsible, and not be ashamed, and not have to run away from their families" by claiming that the speech "struck me as much more shallow than that, though." Carlson claimed that Obama's "diagnosis is that jobs are paying less because we've, quote, busted up unions, and there aren't enough jobs for the poor," and added, "[A]ctually, there's some deeper syndrome here that I don't see addressed in any way." Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter responded that Obama had "one sentence fragment" on the "atroph[y]" of unions and accused Carlson of mischaracterizing the speech because Obama also discussed issues including "the earned income tax credit." Read more
Once again, CNN ignores questions about timing of terror-arrest announcement
During the July 18 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer did not question Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, chief spokesman of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, about the timing of the military's announcement regarding the arrest of Khalid Abdul Fatah Daoud Mahmud al-Mashadani, which came two weeks after the arrest occurred. Al-Mashadani was allegedly the "highest-ranking Iraqi in Al Qaeda in Iraq," according to Blitzer, and allegedly the conduit between Al Qaeda in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's group, Al Qaeda. Nor did Blitzer note that the announcement of the two-week-old arrest followed by one day the release of a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that concludes that Al Qaeda "will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI)" and that Al Qaeda "has protected or regenerated key elements of its [U.S.] Homeland attack capability," judgments that the Bush administration is touting as evidence of the need for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq. Read more
Media uncritically report GOP charge that Senate Dems are withholding military funding
Reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) decided to temporarily pull the annual Defense Department funding authorization bill from consideration after Senate Republicans blocked a vote on a Democratic amendment aimed at withdrawing troops from Iraq, a July 19 New York Times article asserted, "The pause will also allow Republicans to charge that Democrats are stalling a major Pentagon measure, including a military pay raise, to make political points." Yet the Times did not point out that the bill -- which would authorize defense spending for fiscal year 2008 -- is not set to take effect until October 1. By contrast, after reporting Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) criticism of Reid's move, a July 19 McClatchy Newspapers article noted that the bill "wouldn't take effect until fiscal 2008 begins on Oct. 1 and isn't technically needed in order to continue military funding." Read more
Sawyer apologizes for false assertion that Reid "vows to filibuster"
On the July 19 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, co-host Diane Sawyer apologized for her false assertion -- documented by Media Matters for America -- regarding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) plan to hold an all-night Senate debate prior to the July 18 cloture vote on a Democratic proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq. Read more
NBC continues to report on Edwards haircut, ignores Romney campaign's makeup purchases
Regarding the Mitt Romney campaign's $300 makeup expenditure, NBC News' First Read blog advised readers on July 17 to "look for [John] Edwards supporters to use this as a test to see if the MSM [mainstream media] covers Romney as harshly as Edwards was." Despite that admonition, a July 19 Today report on candidate expenditures mentioned Edwards' $400 haircuts, but not Romney's makeup purchases. Read more
O'Reilly continued to compare Daily Kos to Nazis and KKK
During the July 18 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, while discussing JetBlue's decision to sponsor the YearlyKos convention, host Bill O'Reilly asserted that the blog Daily Kos is a "hate website[]" and opined: "There's no difference between the KKK and the Nazis, who have websites, than the Daily Kos. Because the Daily Kos is basically saying, 'We're allowing this kind of thing to come on.' " O'Reilly then offered the following examples of the type of commentary that purportedly appears on Daily Kos: " 'It's good that [White House press secretary] Tony Snow has a recurrence of cancer; we hope he dies. We're sorry the assassination attempt against Dick Cheney failed; let them try again.' And on and on and on and on." Read more
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