Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Media Matters for America, July 24, 2007

O'Reilly compared Daily Kos to Capone, Mussolini

On the July 23 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, responding to Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers' assertion that "there's a lot of stuff that [Daily Kos bloggers] do that isn't horrible," host Bill O'Reilly said: "It's kind of like Al Capone." O'Reilly continued: "We'll only do bad things on Thursday, and we'll slaughter a bunch of people, but on Friday we'll go to church." In response to
Powers' statement that "there's a lot of good diaries put up there," O'Reilly said: "[Former Italian fascist dictator Benito] Mussolini made the trains run on time." Read more



Angle's report on Gonzales hearing falsely identified Specter as a Democrat

On the July 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, on-screen text identified Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) as a Democrat during a report from chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' July 24 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The text appeared during footage of Specter telling Gonzales that the committee would be reviewing his testimony about a May 10, 2004, confrontation over the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program to "see if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable." Angle introduced the footage of Specter as an example of "other[]" senators who "urged the attorney general to correct his testimony, vaguely warning of legal action." At no time during Angle's report did anyone say that Specter was, in fact, a Republican. Read more



Cheney biographer Hayes' pattern of falsely defending the Bush administration's Iraq policy

On the July 23 broadcast of NBC's Today, co-host Matt Lauer interviewed Weekly Standard writer Stephen F. Hayes, author of the forthcoming biography Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President. Lauer noted that Vice President Dick Cheney "does not like to do a lot of interviews, does not like to talk about himself, does not like to share personal feelings, and yet he sat down for 30 hours of interviews with you." Lauer continued: "You've admitted you were somewhat sympathetic to the vice president going in. So, do you think he felt this was his best chance to get this written the way he'd want it written?" Hayes replied: "I think that's probably true." To claim that Hayes, however, is "somewhat sympathetic to the vice president" drastically understates the steadfast support Hayes has shown Cheney and the Bush administration on foreign policy, and particularly on the Iraq war -- support based on falsehoods and distortions and that has been touted by Cheney himself. Read more



MSNBC's Morales selectively cited polling on congressional approval -- and misidentified it

On the July 24 "Super Tuesday" edition of MSNBC Live, host Natalie Morales falsely asserted that "the latest poll out of The Washington Post shows that there is an all-time low of 14 percent of approval for lawmakers in Congress right now." Morales then asked, "Why is that not affecting Democrats more?" In fact, "the latest poll out of The Washington Post" and ABC News, conducted July 18-21, found a 37 percent approval rating for Congress. Read more




CNN ignored evidence of GOP obstructionism, allowed McConnell to attack Dems

On the July 23 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash referred to the "narrative that we've heard more and more from the Republicans here, which is that they say the Democratic Congress simply isn't getting anything done." Bash then showed a video clip of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) asserting that "the American people are looking at this Congress and saying, 'Where's the legislation? What are you going to do to make America better?' " But in airing the GOP claim that the Democratic leadership "isn't getting anything done" -- which Bash did not challenge -- she ignored the Republicans' record of blocking legislation proposed by the Democratic majority in the Senate. Indeed, as McClatchy Newspapers reported on July 20: "This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before." Read more

No comments:

Post a Comment