Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Media Matters for America, October 02, 2007

Limbaugh: VoteVets lied to soldier in ad, "strapp[ed] those lies to his belt," then sent him out "to walk into as many people" as he can

On the October 2 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh denounced a recent ad by VoteVets.org that featured Iraq war veteran Brian McGough, calling the ad "a blatant use of a valiant combat veteran, lying to him about what I said, then strapping those lies to his belt, sending him out via the media in a TV ad to walk into as many people as he can walk into." Limbaugh went on to say that "[w]hoever pumped [McGough] full of these lies about what I said ... has betrayed him." Limbaugh denounced the ad despite admitting "I haven't watched the ad." Read more



NBC still promoting Coulter's books, despite Fox & Friends' claim to the contrary

Contrary to the assertion by Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy that NBC's Today "booked" Ann Coulter "to talk about her book, and they didn't talk about her book," Today host Meredith Vieira noted in her introduction of Coulter that she has a new book out, the book appeared on-screen at the beginning and end of the interview, and Vieira did bring it up during the
interview. The Today appearance marks at least Coulter's 195th appearance on an NBC-operated channel. Read more



CBS' 60 Minutes offered no rebuttal to Clarence Thomas' claims about Anita Hill

The September 30 broadcast of CBS' 60 Minutes featured an interview with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which coincided with the October 1 release of his memoir, My Grandfather's Son (HarperCollins). During the interview, Thomas again denied Anita Hill's allegations in 1991 that he sexually harassed her, saying of Hill: "She was not the demure, religious, conservative person that they portrayed. That's not the person I knew." In October 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on Hill's allegations during Thomas' confirmation proceedings. 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft reported: "In the book, [Thomas] remembers Anita Hill as an average employee whose behavior could sometimes be irritating, rude, and unprofessional, which he attributed to her youth. He was asked to write a number of recommendations for her and helped advance her career, and he speculates that she got swept up in events and succumbed to a combination of ego, ambition, and immaturity." Kroft offered no challenge to Thomas, and CBS gave no indication that it had contacted Hill or anyone else to respond to him. Read more



Scarborough and Geist repeated Limbaugh's defense of "phony soldiers" comment without noting its holes

On MSNBC's Morning Joe, contributor Willie Geist stated that he had gone "back and looked at the full transcript" of Rush Limbaugh's recent description of soldiers who support withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq as "phony soldiers" and asserted that Limbaugh had been "talking about a specific soldier, this guy Jesse MacBeth," who falsely claimed to be an injured Iraq war veteran. Joe Scarborough agreed that Limbaugh's remark has "been blown out of context." However, the transcript and audio included in the original Media Matters item documenting Limbaugh's comments makes clear that he referred to "phony soldiers," plural. Read more



Defending Limbaugh, Bennett misrepresented Limbaugh's attack on Rep. Murtha

During the "Strategy Session" segment on the October 2 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, conservative talk show host Bill Bennett, purporting to defend Rush Limbaugh against criticism over his recent "phony soldiers" comments, claimed that Limbaugh "did not call [Rep.] Jack Murtha [D-PA] a 'phony soldier.' " Bennett asserted that instead, Limbaugh "took Jack Murtha on, on the merits of the argument." In fact, as Media Matters for America documented, on the September 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show -- while responding to the growing criticism over his September 26 characterization of service members who support U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers" -- Limbaugh said: Read more


Fox News falsehood: Limbaugh "used this term 'phony soldiers' when he was talking about a guy named Jesse MacBeth"

Purporting to "give you some background on this quickly," Fox News' Megyn Kelly said of Rush Limbaugh's comments characterizing service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers": "Rush originally used this term 'phony soldiers' when he was talking about a guy named Jesse MacBeth." In fact, when Limbaugh first used the term on the September 26 show, he had not mentioned MacBeth, and did not mention MacBeth until 1 minute and 50 seconds after he used the phrase "phony soldiers." Read more



Melanie Morgan: Iraq war vet Soltz "undermin[ing] the real mission of our troops"

On Hannity & Colmes, discussing Rush Limbaugh's recent characterization of service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers," Melanie Morgan asserted: "A number of soldiers who are fake or who are embellishers or who are posers, who go out there -- or soldiers like Jon Soltz of VoteVet.org [sic], who go out there and use their far-left, anti-American agenda, political agenda to undermine the real mission of our troops, our heroes who are out there, who are fighting in a hot war, who are fighting for our lives and for our security and safety." Read more



O'Reilly attacked Media Matters for "peddling" "propaganda" about Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment

Discussing Rush Limbaugh's controversial remarks about "phony soldiers," Bill O'Reilly claimed that "Media Matters is peddling that Mr. Limbaugh was denigrating soldiers who dissent from the Iraq War, but that doesn't seem to be true." As evidence, O'Reilly aired a clip of Limbaugh claiming that he "was talking about one soldier with that phony soldier comment. Jesse MacBeth." However, during the September 26 broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh -- in his original comments -- actually referred to "phony soldiers," plural. Further, Limbaugh did not refer to Jesse MacBeth until one minute and 50 seconds after making his "phony soldiers" comment. Read more



Dick Morris: As Clinton win becomes "more likely," "there's going to be a stock market crash"

During the October 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Fox News contributor and nationally syndicated columnist Dick Morris said of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): "You know, one of the things that I think needs to be said about Hillary Clinton -- and I want to say it now -- is that if she is elected president, one of the first things she's going to do is either double
the capital gains tax, so it's 30 percent, not 15, or repeal it entirely so it's ordinary income taxed at 40, because that will be the new rate." Morris continued: "As her election gets closer, as it becomes more likely she's going to win, there's going to be a stock market crash. And when she wins, it's going to be Black Wednesday, because what's going to happen is that Americans will want to sell their stocks so they can get 15 percent tax, not 30 percent tax." Read more




Defending "camel jockeys" slur, Coulter said: "We have sure moved away from the day when we called them Krauts and Nips"

On the October 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, during a discussion with right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, co-host Alan Colmes said, referring to a chapter in Coulter's new book, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans (Crown Forum): "[Y]ou're quoted as saying, 'Maybe I'm winning the camel jockeys over,' " to which Coulter responded: "Yes ... That's actually in the book. That's not a made-up quote." Colmes then asked: "So you have no problem referring to Arabs as camel jockeys?" Coulter responded: "Oh. Yeah. No. They killed 3,000 Americans. I'll be very careful with my language." In response, Colmes said: "[W]hen you refer to an entire ethnicity as camel jockeys, it sounds bigoted," to which Coulter again asserted: "Yes, and it's so mean after they killed 3,000 Americans, and I shouldn't be mean to them," adding, "We have sure moved away from the day when we called them Krauts and Nips." Read more

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