MSNBC's Shuster falsely suggested Mark Penn first brought up Obama drug use issue on Hardball
On MSNBC's Morning Joe, David Shuster asked Clinton campaign chief strategist Mark Penn if it was a "mistake" when he "brought up a word and reminded people of [Sen.] Barack Obama's past drug use" on Hardball in December 2007. But, Penn was not the one to bring up Obama's past drug use; it was Chris Matthews. Matthews, as well as Norah O'Donnell, have falsely asserted that Penn brought up the issue. Read More
AP reported administration claim that telecom companies acted "in good faith," but not contrary views
In a February 5 article about a letter Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell sent to Senate leaders concerning amendments to a proposed Senate bill updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), the Associated Press uncritically reported Mukasey and McConnell's contention that "[p]rivate citizens who respond in good faith to a request for assistance by public officials should not be held liable for their actions." Mukasey and McConnell made that assertion in opposition to an amendment that would strip from the bill language granting telecommunications companies retroactive immunity to civil liability for their participation in the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program. At no point did the article note the decision by a federal judge regarding the lawsuit, nor arguments congressional opponents of such immunity have made challenging the notion that the telecommunications companies acted in "good faith" or that their intentions were even relevant. Indeed, in one of the cases challenging the legality of a company's alleged cooperation with the wiretapping program, Hepting v. AT&T, Vaughn Walker, the federal district judge hearing the case, found, as part of his rejection of AT&T's claims of immunity, that, "based on the facts as alleged in [the] plaintiffs' complaint," AT&T "cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed" that it would be lawful for the company to cooperate with the government. Read More
MSNBC's Brzezinski asked if McCain is "the perfect candidate" without disclosing that her brother advises him
On Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski asked presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: "[A]t this moment in history, isn't John McCain the perfect candidate to deal with what challenges we face as a country, and given the presidency that is just coming to a close right now?" At no point during the segment, however, did Brzezinski disclose that her brother is a McCain adviser. Read More
Print press repeats media mantra of McCain as "maverick"
Numerous print publications -- including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times -- continued a longstanding practice of referring to Sen. John McCain as a "maverick" in their coverage of the February 5 presidential primaries and caucuses. Read More
CNN aired Laura Ingraham saying conservative "suicide voters" might vote for Clinton over McCain
On the February 6 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, correspondent Carol Costello reported on conservative radio talk-show hosts' condemnations of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), stating that "conservatives cannot stomach" the idea of a ticket consisting of McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Costello's report included an audio clip in which Laura Ingraham asserted on her show that some conservatives would turn themselves into "suicide voters" and vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) rather than vote for McCain. Read More
Claiming that McCain's "straight-talker image" would be jeopardized by flip-flops, Gannett News Service doesn't note they've already occurred
A Gannett News Service article claimed that John McCain "has built up such a straight-talker image that any aroma of pandering or changing positions to placate conservatives would expose him to the flip-flopping label he has pinned on [Mitt] Romney." In fact, on two of the issues cited -- taxes and immigration -- McCain has changed his positions to more closely align himself with the base of the Republican Party, which the article didn't note. Read More
Wash. Post quoted Mudcat Saunders on Clinton's chances in VA without noting his stated opposition to her
In an article on the upcoming Virginia primary, The Washington Post included a quote from former Edwards campaign strategist Mudcat Saunders, saying that Sen. Hillary Clinton "might encounter difficulty connecting with southwest Virginians, who have been hit hard by plant closings," because "many people there blame the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993." But the Post did not note that Saunders has said a Hillary Clinton presidency would violate the Constitution and that he has vowed "to do everything I can to make sure" John Edwards does not endorse Clinton. Read More
BillOReilly.com link to story of "sex offenders living under a bridge": "Those weren't veterans John Edwards, they were sex offenders"
A link on BillOReilly.com, the website of Fox News and conservative radio talk-show host Bill O'Reilly, was titled "Those weren't veterans John Edwards, they were sex offenders," and linked to an Associated Press article about Florida's efforts "to dissolve a community of sex offenders living under a bridge." Media Matters for America has documented the back-and-forth between O'Reilly and former Sen. John Edwards over homelessness and homeless veterans. Read More
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