Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Media Matters Daily Summary 01-23-08

CNN's Chernoff falsely claimed Social Security will "be out of money in 2041"
CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff falsely asserted on The Situation Room that Social Security "will go bust, be out of money, in 2041." In fact, according to a 2007 federal report, "[p]resent tax rates would be sufficient to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits after trust fund exhaustion in 2041 and 70 percent of scheduled benefits in 2081." Read More

NY Times' Healy claimed Clinton's use of "pueda" didn't make sense -- but she got only the tense wrong
In a blog post, New York Times reporter Patrick Healy wrote that as Spanish-speaking voters chanted "Si se puede" at a rally in California, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "bellowed into her microphone, 'Si se pueda is right!' " Healy added, "Several colleagues who speak better Spanish than I do say that 'pueda' (as opposed to 'puede') has meaning in other contexts, but it does not really make sense in this one." In fact, Clinton used the correct verb but the wrong tense. Read More

All-male Morning Joe panel laughed as Barnicle compared Clinton to "everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court"
Discussing the most recent Democratic presidential candidates debate on Morning Joe, political and social commentator Mike Barnicle said Sen. Hillary Clinton "look[ed] like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court," eliciting laughter from the all-male panel that featured MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, and David Shuster. Read More

Politico's Allen cited Women's Wear Daily article that cropped Vogue editor's statement on canceled Clinton photo shoot
In a recent blog entry, Politico chief political writer Mike Allen posted a passage from Women's Wear Daily that misrepresented a statement by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour in her February "letter from the editor," in which she addressed Sen. Hillary Clinton's cancellation of a scheduled cover shoot. The WWD cropped Wintour's comments in which she critiqued the media, and neither Allen nor WWD indicated through ellipses or otherwise that words had been omitted. Read More

Beck on guest who favored tax cuts for lower-income Americans: "Nice of you to join us, Stalin"
Responding to guest Jeff Frankel's statement that "[a]ll the past tax cuts have gone primarily to the rich, and I think it's -- it is time to give some of it to lower-income, working Americans," Glenn Beck said, "Nice of you to join us, Stalin. I mean, that is the redistribution of wealth!" This is not the first time Beck has invoked the Soviet Union in characterizing policies or people with whom he disagrees. Read More

MSNBC's Carlson mocked Clinton for her comments about gender discrimination
After airing a video clip of Sen. Hillary Clinton talking about "gender equality" during a Democratic presidential candidates debate, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson stated: "It takes a lot of guts for a rich, privileged white lady who is one of the most powerful people in the world to claim that she is a victim of gender discrimination." Read More

LA Times purported to reveal Obama/Rezko ties that Obama already acknowledged
A Los Angeles Times article reported that a review the paper has conducted "shows that [Antoin] Rezko, a businessman long active in Chicago politics, played a deeper role in [Sen. Barack] Obama's political and financial biography than the candidate has acknowledged." As evidence, the Times cited a real estate deal between Obama and Rezko that has long been a matter of public record, and which Obama has already "acknowledged" -- indeed, the article itself noted that Obama called it a "mistake." Read More

AP debate "Analysis" ignored Obama's response to allegations he refused to support sexual abuse bill
An AP article on the January 21 Democratic presidential debate reported on criticism of Sen. Barack Obama over the number of "present" votes he took in the Illinois legislature, including the charge that he had failed to act with respect to "the rights of victims of sexual abuse." But the AP did not note that Obama responded specifically to the issue of his "present" vote on a particular bill that the AP mentioned having to do with sexual abuse, stating that "I actually sponsored the bill" but that "after I had sponsored it and helped to get it passed, it turned out that there was a legal provision in it that was problematic and needed to be fixed so that it wouldn't be struck down." Read More

On Hannity & Colmes, Rev. Peterson compared Obama's church to KKK
On Hannity & Colmes, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago: "If a white preacher, including the KKK, espouses so-called white values -- remember, at one time, the KKK was doing that." During the show, neither Peterson nor Sean Hannity explained how Trinity United Church of Christ in any way reflects the ideology, mission, or history of the KKK. Read More

On CNN, Jeffrey said "it looked like, if someone had splashed water on Hillary, she would have melted like the Wicked Witch of the West"
On the January 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, discussing the January 21 CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Institute debate, Cybercast News Service editor-in-chief Terry Jeffrey said: "I think it was bad for [Sen.] Hillary [Clinton (D-NY)], even though I think she's probably going to get the nomination. There was a moment there in the debate ... where it looked like, if someone had splashed water on Hillary, she would have melted like the Wicked Witch of the West." Democratic strategist Donna Brazile responded: "Oh, that's awful." Read More

Wash. Times article misquoted Clinton comment it claimed "seemed to diminish the accomplishments" of King
A Washington Times article misrepresented Sen. Hillary Clinton's January 7 statement on civil rights -- which it claimed "seemed to diminish the accomplishments of Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement -- by reporting that she said: "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done." But Clinton actually said: "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done." Read More

Media outlets uncritically reported McCain's dubious defense of vote against Bush tax cuts
CNN national correspondent John King uncritically reported that Sen. John McCain "says he opposed the Bush tax cuts because the plan did not also include spending cuts." The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, and the Palm Beach Post also similarly reported McCain's assertion. But in a floor statement during the Senate debate on the 2001 tax cut bill, McCain did not mention the absence of offsetting spending cuts; rather, he stated, "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief." Read More

Matthews decried CNN debate's focus on "black/white issues," ignored MSNBC debate's focus on race
On Morning Joe, Chris Matthews complained that the January 21 Democratic presidential debate on CNN, held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, spent too much time discussing "black/white issues" rather than the candidates' positions on the Iraq war or health care. But Matthews did not ask similar questions about the January 15 Democratic presidential debate on MSNBC, even though many of the first 19 questions asked during the debate focused on race and none dealt explicitly with issues of public policy. Read More

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