Matthews: Does Obama "connect with regular people" or just African-Americans and college grads?
Discussing Sen. Barack Obama on the April 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): "Let me ask you about how he -- how's he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?" Earlier in the show, referring to Obama's bowling performance at a March 29 campaign stop at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Matthews teased the segment with McCaskill by asking, "[C]an Obama woo more regular voters -- you know, the ones who actually do know how to bowl?" As Media Matters for America noted, on the March 31 edition of Hardball, Matthews said of Obama: "[T]his gets very ethnic, but the fact that he's good at basketball doesn't surprise anybody, but the fact that he's that terrible at bowling does make you wonder." Read More
Matthews wrongly suggested Obama exaggerated cost of a tank of gas
Chris Matthews suggested Sen. Barack Obama was exaggerating the price of gasoline when Obama reportedly noted a friend's complaint that it cost "$85 to fill up my tank." In fact, numerous trucks and SUVs have gasoline tanks large enough that, based on current prices, it costs $85 or more to fill them up. Read More
McClatchy reported "McCain listens" to "both sides" of supply-side debate -- but he's also spouted "both sides"
McClatchy Newspapers reported that "[a]ll Republican economists champion low taxes. They disagree, however, on whether reducing taxes produces enough economic stimulus to pay for itself -- a doctrine called 'supply-side economics' -- or creates worrisome federal budget deficits. [Sen. John] McCain listens to tax-cutters on both sides." In fact, McCain has at least twice asserted as fact that tax cuts increase government revenues or that "most economists" believe that they do, only to subsequently have his campaign release statements backing off those claims. Read More
Kelly O'Donnell highlighted McCain's overseas trip "to pump his international image," ignored misstatements, fundraiser
In a report on Sen. John McCain, NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell referred to McCain's "statesman-in-waiting trip overseas last month to pump up his international image," but did not note that, during the trip, McCain made the admittedly false claim, more than once, that "Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq." O'Donnell also did not mention that the trip included a fundraiser in London. Read More
Hill columnist asserted that McCain's "view that negative ads don't win campaigns" confirmed by Romney attacks, but McCain attacked too
Republican strategist David Hill, who writes a weekly column published in The Hill, claimed that "the failures of Mitt Romney's assaults on [Sen. John] McCain confirmed his view that negative ads don't win campaigns." In fact, McCain engaged in negative campaigning in the 2008 and 2000 Republican presidential primaries. Read More
CNN's Crowley repeated accusation that Obama "distort[ed]" McCain's "100 years" remark, without reporting what McCain actually said
On The Situation Room, Candy Crowley stated that Sen. Barack Obama "accus[ed] [Sen. John] McCain of wanting to be in Iraq for another 100 years." She then reported "that is a distortion of what McCain said, and they push back very hard -- the McCain campaign -- when they hear this." In fact, during a January 3 town hall meeting in New Hampshire, McCain said a U.S. military presence in Iraq for the next 100 years would "be fine ... [a]s long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed." Read More
Wash. Post's Gerson suggested Obama should "come out strongly for policies that would reduce the number of abortions" -- even though he already has
Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson suggested that Sen. Barack Obama should "come out strongly for policies that would reduce the number of abortions -- support for pregnant women, abstinence education, the responsible promotion of birth control." In fact, Obama has advocated the policies Gerson mentioned: "education" that "include[s] abstinence" and "information about contraception." Read More
LA Times, AP ignored inconsistency in McCain's statements about Korea-like troop presence in Iraq
In reporting on Sen. John McCain's campaign's defense of his comment that he would be "fine" with a U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to that in South Korea, neither the Los Angeles Times nor the Associated Press noted McCain's prior inconsistent statements on that subject. Read More
MSNBC and CNN ignored "boldest question" from student at prep school but reported extensively on students' question to Chelsea Clinton
MSNBC and CNN reported on Sen. John McCain's visit to his high school alma mater without noting that -- in what MSNBC's First Read political blog called "[t]he boldest question" from the crowd -- a student at the school, pointing out that "political motivation isn't completely absent" even though people "were told that this isn't a political event," asked McCain "what exactly is your purpose in being" at the school. By contrast, MSNBC and CNN both extensively reported on questions posed to Chelsea Clinton about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment