Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Media Matters Daily Summary 02-05-08

Reporting National Journal's rating of Obama, media ignored magazine's non-rating of McCain because of missed votes
Media Matters for America has identified numerous media outlets or figures who reported that the National Journal has rated Sen. Barack Obama "the most liberal senator in 2007," but did not report that the same National Journal feature stated that Sen. John McCain "did not vote frequently enough in 2007 to draw a composite score. He missed more than half of the votes in both the economic and foreign-policy categories." Read More

Wash. Times runs column on Obama under the headline: "Black Horse"
A Washington Times column reporting that Chris Matthews spoke about Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy and the "galloping horse of history" ran under the headline "Black horse." Read More

Wash. Post's Cohen ignored Obama's criticism of Farrakhan and award by church magazine
Ignoring Sen. Barack Obama's statement "condemn[ing]" Louis Farrakhan's "anti-Semitic statements" and his church's decision to give Farrakhan an award, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote: "I know what Barack Obama was doing when he refused to confront his minister about the latter's embrace of Louis Farrakhan. He was ducking an issue with no upside for him." Read More

In Wash. Post, Kurtz failed to note "neutral" Bennett's campaign contributions to McCain, Romney
In a Washington Post article about conservative radio hosts' opposition to Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, Howard Kurtz reported that Bill Bennett, "who is neutral in the race," has not "climb[ed] aboard the stop-McCain bandwagon." But Kurtz did not mention, as he did on his CNN program, that Bennett reportedly contributed more than $2,000 to McCain's campaign in December 2007 and to Mitt Romney's campaign in January, which raises questions about "whether Bennett can act as a neutral analyst in a race that still includes Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul," according to The Huffington Post. Read More

Ignoring reversals and shifts, Wash. Post claimed "conservative maverick" McCain committed "heresies on taxes, immigration"
A Washington Post article described Sen. John McCain as a "conservative maverick" and asserted that he has committed "heresies on taxes, immigration and campaign finance." Yet Kane did not mention that on immigration and taxes, McCain has either reversed or shifted his positions to more closely align himself with the mainstream of the Republican Party. Read More

Matthews: "We ask if Hillary's crying for real. But we don't" wonder if McCain's Super Bowl conduct was "fake"
On Hardball, Jill Zuckman asserted, "Senator McCain watched the Super Bowl in the bar of his hotel last night in Boston," adding, "[A]nybody could come up and talk to him." Chris Matthews replied, "Now, we don't ask if that's fake, do we? We ask if Hillary's crying for real. But we don't say, 'Hey, wait a minute. He went in the bar? Wasn't he a little tired? Wouldn't he have rather gone to bed?' " Read More

Wash. Post, NY Post baselessly asserted that Clinton was referring to NH moment by saying "I said I would not tear up"
The Washington Post and the New York Post both baselessly asserted that Sen. Hillary Clinton referred to an emotional moment before last month's New Hampshire primary when she said during a February 4 visit to the Yale Child Study Center, "I said I would not tear up." Read More

Wash. Times editorial cropped Obama quote to falsely claim he argued against protecting "babies who survive botched late-term abortions"
A Washington Times editorial falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama "argu[ed] cold-bloodedly on the Illinois Senate floor that babies who survive botched late-term abortions should not be considered 'persons' because this would be tantamount to admitting 'that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a -- a child, a 9-month old -- child that was delivered to term.' " In fact, he was not discussing "late-term abortions" in the remarks the editorial highlighted; Obama was asserting that the bill in question, which was not limited to late-term abortions, would "essentially bar abortions." Read More

Media figures again leaped to question authenticity of Clinton's tears
Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume and Hannity & Colmes, as well as MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams, all featured segments in which the authenticity of emotions expressed by Hillary Clinton at a recent campaign event was questioned, repeating a pattern in which media figures baselessly claimed that Clinton's actions during a previous emotional moment just before the New Hampshire presidential primary were not "genuine" or were "pretend[]." Read More

Wash. Times misrepresented photograph of Clinton from New Haven event
The Washington Times misrepresented an Associated Press photograph, claiming that it showed Hillary Clinton "tear[ing] up during a stop in New Haven, Conn." In fact, according to the caption provided by the AP, it depicted Clinton "wiping her eye and sipping water to get her cough under control"; it does not depict the moment at the New Haven event the accompanying Times article highlighted. Read More

Promoting its Senate ratings, National Journal Group email now touts 2003 "most liberal" rating of Kerry that NJ found flawed
In an email to readers encouraging recipients to read the National Journal article on the magazine's Senate ratings, the National Journal Group wrote: "We expect this story will have immediate traction in the media and blogosphere and at watercoolers around the country. In 2004, President Bush invoked Senator John Kerry's liberal Vote Ratings score repeatedly on the campaign trail and at their head-to-head debates." However, the email did not note that the National Journal has acknowledged the methodology it used to produce its Kerry "most liberal" rating was flawed. Read More

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