Kondracke falsely claimed Obama would be "violating a promise" by "forgoing public financing ... between now and August"
On The Beltway Boys, Mort Kondracke conflated primary election and general election funding, falsely asserting that Sen. Barack Obama will be "violating a promise" if he "forgo[es] public financing ... between now and August" -- that is, during the primary. In fact, Obama did not pledge to accept public funds during the primary, and long ago opted out of public financing for the primary election. Rather, he has said that he will attempt to reach an agreement with Sen. John McCain to use public financing in the general election. Read More
CNN online poll echoes smears by asking if Obama "show[s] the proper patriotism"
A CNN online poll asked: "Does [Sen.] Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be president of the United States?" The Politico's Ben Smith wrote: "[I]t's odd to see the mainstream media drive a largely whispered question that none of his main, named critics -- Hillary, McCain or the RNC -- will touch." Read More
Time's Halperin: "Things McCain Can Do to Try to Beat Obama" include attacks on his race and name
In a February 25 entry to his website, The Page, Time magazine political analyst Mark Halperin posted a list titled "Things McCain Can Do to Try to Beat Obama That Clinton Cannot," in which he suggested that McCain "can ... [a]llow some supporters to risk being accused of using the race card when criticizing Obama" and "can ...[e]mphasize Barack Hussein Obama's unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism." Read More
CNN's Situation Room again aired McCain's attacks on Clinton over earmark without noting his missed vote to remove it
CNN correspondent Carol Costello aired a video clip of Sen. John McCain criticizing an earmark requested by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton in which McCain says: "Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum." However, Costello did not mention that McCain skipped the vote on removing the earmark, as other CNN reporters have also failed to do. Read More
MSNBC's Geist: "[S]ome people looked at those clips of Hillary Clinton on Saturday and thought, perhaps, about the b-word"
On MSNBC Live, co-host Willie Geist stated that "some people ... thought, perhaps, about the b-word" when viewing "clips" of Sen. Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail on February 23. Geist made the statement while discussing a segment from the February 23 edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live in which comedian Tina Fey said, "[M]aybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch. Let me say something about that. Yeah, she is. And so am I." Read More
Time's Scherer ignored McCain flip-flops on immigration and taxes, did not note his "remarkably vague" plan for Iraq
Time's Michael Scherer wrote that Sen. John McCain has "a set of issues that appeal to the political center," including immigration and President Bush's tax cuts, but did not note that McCain has reversed his position on immigration and his rationale for opposing the tax cuts. Scherer also asserted without explanation that the Democratic presidential candidates have been "remarkably vague" about "what to do next" concerning the war in Iraq, but did not mention that McCain has been vague about how long he believes U.S. forces should remain in Iraq, the number of troops that will be stationed in Iraq for the next 10 or 20 years, and whether the United States will have permanent bases there and a security agreement like it does with Japan and South Korea. Read More
On CNN Headline News, Goldberg compared Obama, FDR to Hitler
On Glenn Beck, National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg said: "I think one of the things that is decidedly fascistic, or at least just a bad idea, is looking for silver bullets. You know, when [Sen.] Barack Obama campaigns, he's basically saying, 'I'm a silver bullet. I'm going to solve all your problems just by electing me.' FDR, Hitler, all these guys, they basically said, 'All your problems can be solved.' " Read More
AP uncritically quoted "dirty trickster" Roger Stone -- founder of C.U.N.T. -- attacking Obama's patriotism
An AP article about conservative attacks on Sen. Barack Obama's patriotism quoted Roger Stone, identifying him only as a "Republican consultant." The article did not mention that Stone established the anti-Hillary Clinton 527 group Citizens United Not Timid, which emphasizes its acronym on its website and on T-shirts, or that he reportedly was forced to resign from a political campaign in August 2007 after allegedly leaving a threatening telephone message at the office of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's father. Read More
CNN report on "rumors" about Obama's patriotism did not mention efforts by Republicans to advance them
CNN's Josh Levs reported on "rumors" about Sen. Barack Obama's "patriotism" that the Obama campaign "say[s] are lies," adding, "[T]hey're not sure where these rumors come from." Levs did not note that Republicans have begun using patriotism as an issue with which to attack Obama, even though a CNN.com article that same day reported that Obama "defended himself and his wife" when asked to respond to what was described as "an attempt by conservatives and Republicans to paint you as unpatriotic." Read More
Post article contradicts claim in its subhead -- attributed to U.S. government -- that telecoms are "not cooperating" with surveillance program
The subhead of a Washington Post article asserted that according to the U.S. government, some telecommunications firms are "not cooperating" with the Bush administration's surveillance efforts "for fear of liability" following the expiration of the Protect America Act. In fact, the article itself stated: "[A]dministration officials told lawmakers that the final holdout among the companies had relented and agreed to fully participate in the surveillance program, according to an official familiar with the issue." Read More
Carlson asserted Clinton's court-appointed representation of rape suspect was "immoral" -- but legal experts say she was doing her job
Referring to a Newsday article about Hillary Clinton's representation of a man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl, Tucker Carlson said on his MSNBC program: "Now their defense is, 'Well, that's what lawyers are supposed to do.' In other words, it's legal, therefore it's allowed. I guess my response would be, it's still repulsive and immoral." In fact, the Newsday article made clear that legal experts agreed that Clinton was simply fulfilling her legal and ethical obligation as the defendant's lawyer, a job she was reportedly assigned by the court. Read More
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