Thursday, September 20, 2007

Media Matters for America, September 20, 2007

Reporting on Giuliani ad attacking Clinton, media don't note he blamed troops for missing weapons

In reports on a new Rudy Giuliani campaign ad criticizing Sen. Hillary Clinton's position on the Iraq war, several media outlets highlighted a quote from the ad in which the narrator says: "[J]ust when our troops need all our support to finish the job, Hillary Clinton is turning her back on them." But none of these reports mentioned Giuliani's claim in October 2004, that U.S. troops, and not President Bush, were responsible for the missing explosives at the Al Qaqaa weapons depot. Read more



NY Times cited RNC release on Clinton health plan, but did not identify the RNC's "commentators and analysts"

A New York Times article on Sen. Hillary Clinton's proposed health care plan noted that "the Republican National Committee [RNC] sent an e-mail message challenging Mrs. Clinton's promise that her plan would not be government-run or produce new bureaucracy, quoting eight commentators and analysts who assert that government would inevitably expand." But the article didn't identify the RNC's "commentators and analysts" -- a group that included Tucker
Carlson, the Orange County Register editorial page, right-wing think tank analysts, and former Republican officials. Read more



Armstrong Williams: By "B-word," Thomas just meant that sexual-harassment plaintiff is "a tough broad"

On Hardball, during a discussion of a sexual-harassment lawsuit against Isiah Thomas, Armstrong Williams asserted, "I think sometimes guys use it [the word "bitch"], like, let's say, for Isiah Thomas, if the woman did spurn his advances and if she found him offensive and did not give him the kind of attention that he's accustomed to getting from women, because he's supposed to be the celebrated athlete and not president of the New York Knicks, then he referred to her as a B, because he did not get her way. Still, he's implying here she's a tough broad." Read more



Ignoring polling, The Note blamed Reid for ensuring "the return of polarized Iraq politics"


ABC News' The Note claimed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in favoring legislation calling for troop withdrawal timelines, "virtually ensured the return of polarized Iraq politics -- and is giving the left the showdown (take two) it craves." But polling repeatedly shows that a significant majority of the country supports withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq in -- at most -- a timeframe that comports with what Reid has suggested. Read more



O'Reilly: Tasered UF student "biggest wimp in the United States of America"

During the September 18 edition of his Fox News television show, while discussing the recent incident involving University of Florida student Andrew Meyer, who was shocked with a Taser after a confrontation with police that began while he was asking questions of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) during a September 17 campus forum, Bill O'Reilly asserted: "I've been tasered for a story, and all I can say is: He is the biggest wimp in the United States of America." O'Reilly added: "And I don't say that with any kind of bravado, but the overreaction to being tasered -- it's not -- it's an electrical shock is what it is." Also, only moments after showing a video clip of Meyer being shocked, during which the he cried out, "Don't tase me, bro. Don't tase me," O'Reilly stated: "It's not pleasant, but that idiot, he wanted this to happen. He wanted the cops to do it." Read more



Savage responds to "fascist, gay website named Media Matters"

On his radio show, Michael Savage responded to a Media Matters item noting that his website used the following headline in linking to an article: "BULL-DYKE FASCIST TASERS STUDENT WHO ASKS KERRY TOO MANY QUESTIONS." Savage asserted that "a fascist, gay website named Media Matters has attacked me for pointing out that it was a so-called feminist type who tasered the student who asked [Sen. John] Kerry too many questions." Read more



CNN's Keilar reported that "the Senate voted to stop debate" on DC voting rights bill -- but it was the Republicans

CNN's Brianna Keilar reported, "Today the Senate voted to stop debate on a bill that would have given Washington, D.C., residents their first ever representative in the U.S. House." But Keilar did not note that it was 41 Republicans and one Democrat who voted to block the bill, denying proponents the 60-vote supermajority needed to end their filibuster. Read more

No comments: