Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Media Matters Daily Summary 06-17-08

MSNBC's Hardball again falsely suggested McCain holds statistically significant lead over Obama among white suburban women
Chris Matthews again aired an on-screen graphic that falsely suggested that Sen. John McCain's lead of 44 percent to 38 percent over Sen. Barack Obama among white suburban women in a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was statistically significant. A chart that appeared on-screen provided only the margin of error for the survey as a whole -- 3.1 percentage points -- and not the margin of error of 9.34 percentage points for the subset of white suburban women. Read More

Kristol asserted that "anyone arrested in" the U.S. has habeas rights -- but not under law he supports
On Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol criticized the Supreme Court's decision striking down portions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) and suggested that fears about that law's denial of the writ of habeas corpus were overblown because "American citizens ... and anyone arrested in this country [have] a right to habeas corpus." But contrary to Kristol's suggestion, the MCA explicitly denied habeas rights to noncitizens, regardless of where that person is detained. Read More

Despite Cheney's reported correction on China drilling claim, Hannity asserted China is "drilling 60 miles off our shores"
Sean Hannity claimed on his radio show, "[W]e've got China, you know, joining with Cuba, they're drilling 60 miles off our shores of Florida." But Vice President Dick Cheney has reportedly issued a correction for making the same claim, as has George Will, whom Cheney cited as the source of his claim. Read More

CNN's Bash falsely suggested Obama proposed only one joint appearance with McCain
On The Situation Room, CNN's Dana Bash twice falsely suggested that Sen. Barack Obama responded to Sen. John McCain's proposal for 10 joint town hall appearances by offering to "just have one," failing to note that McCain rejected Obama's proposal for five joint appearances: three traditional debates, a town hall meeting on the economy, and an in-depth debate on foreign policy. Read More

MSNBC's Watkins falsely claimed that "unemployment is at an all-time low ... the lowest it's been in decades"
On MSNBC Live, Joe Watkins falsely claimed, "No matter what you think about the current administration, at least unemployment is at an all-time low. It's at 5 percent, and some points, less than 5 percent, which has been the lowest it's been in decades." In fact, the current unemployment rate is 5.5 percent, more than double the lowest measured unemployment rate of 2.5 percent, which was recorded in both May and June of 1953. Read More

Dobbs falsely asserted Obama "in a complete reversal" is only "now" considering trip to Iraq
CNN's Lou Dobbs claimed that "in what appears to be a complete reversal tonight, Senator [Barack] Obama says he's considering a trip now to Iraq." In fact, Obama has said on several occasions since last November that he is considering a trip to Iraq. Read More

CNN's Sanchez falsely suggested Democrats rarely discuss religion and their faith in God in public
CNN's Rick Sanchez falsely suggested that Democrats rarely discuss their religious faith, saying of Sen. Barack Obama's speech at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, "When was the last time that you saw a Democrat ... in church giving what appears to be a sermon to a congregation?" In fact, Media Matters for America has documented numerous examples of Democrats discussing their faith in churches and other public settings. Read More

Wash. Times' Pruden mocks "hysterics," including those who warned of AIDS epidemic
In his latest column, The Washington Times' Wes Pruden wrote: "We were all supposed to be dead now, done in by AIDS, the gift of the gays. After that it was SARS, bequeathed to the world by China. Then it was avian flu, which, to be fair to the alarmists, did in fact result in the deaths of millions. The millions were all chickens, true, but chickens have feelings, too." According to the United Nations, at least 1 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses every year since 1997 and at least 2 million every year since 2003. Read More

The Hill, Bloomberg uncritically reported McCain's false suggestion that Obama would increase taxes on 21.6 million small businesses
The Hill and Bloomberg News uncritically reported Sen. John McCain's false suggestion in a June 10 speech that Sen. Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on 21.6 million small businesses that file taxes under the individual income tax. However, Obama has proposed rolling back the Bush tax cuts only on "people who are making 250,000 dollars a year or more," and according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, only 481,000 small businesses fall into the tax brackets that would be affected by those increases. Read More

MSNBC spliced Gore speech to remove context for "dogs and cats" comment, Morning Joe hosts then mocked
MSNBC's Morning Joe aired an excerpt from Al Gore's endorsement speech of Sen. Barack Obama, in which Gore said, "After the last eight years, even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter." Joe Scarborough then stated: "[H]e lost me with the dogs and cat thing." But MSNBC edited out the part of Gore's comments that provided the context for his "dogs and cats" remark. Read More

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