Media Matters Daily Summary 07-23-08

CBS splices McCain interview clip, expunging his false claim on surge timeline and falsely suggesting he gave different answer
On the CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric aired portions of an interview she conducted with Sen. John McCain, removing a part of a response in which he falsely asserted that the 2007 U.S. troop surge "began the Anbar awakening." Couric gave no indication that McCain's comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note his falsehood. Read More

Jonah Goldberg the latest to falsely claim McCain called for Rumsfeld's resignation
In his Los Angeles Times column, Jonah Goldberg falsely claimed that "[w]ithin months of the [Iraq] invasion, [Sen. John] McCain was calling for more troops and the head of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld." In fact, McCain did not call for Rumsfeld to be fired, or for his resignation. Read More

Hannity falsely suggested Obama set out plan for Afghanistan only after his visit -- but he has called for more troops for years
Sean Hannity falsely suggested on his radio show that Sen. Barack Obama "c[ame] up" with his plan for Afghanistan, including calling for the deployment of more troops there, only after his recent visit to the country. But Obama has been calling for an increase of U.S. troops in Afghanistan since at least 2006 and has specifically proposed the addition of at least two combat brigades since 2007. Read More

If Savage was smearing only misdiagnoses of autism, why did he previously call autism itself a "phony disease"?
In a rebroadcast of The Savage Nation that aired on the program July 9, portions of which were previously included in a YouTube clip posted on June 30, Michael Savage acknowledged having called autism "a phony disease." The rebroadcast undermines his claim that when he characterized autism as "[a] fraud, a racket" on July 16, Savage was drawing a distinction between the "truly autistic" and those who have been misdiagnosed. Read More

Toobin: "[I]f there is one public figure in America who has gotten better press over the years than John McCain, I don't know who it is"
Asked on Imus in the Morning about "the press coverage of Senator Obama," CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin responded: "[I]f there is one public figure in America who has gotten better press over the years than John McCain, I don't know who it is." Read More

MSNBC's Witt did not note McCain falsehoods in Anbar statement or in later campaign statement purporting to defend it
On MSNBC Live, Alex Witt uncritically repeated a statement by McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds defending a false statement by Sen. John McCain made the previous day during an interview with CBS, the video clip of which CBS edited to expunge the falsehood. But Witt did not note that Bounds inaccurately represented McCain's original statement or that McCain's statement was itself false. Read More

Dobson may back McCain because "he seems to understand the Muslim threat"
Revealing his "moral dilemma" about the 2008 presidential campaign, Focus on the Family's James Dobson said that while "neither of the candidates is consistent with my views," Sen. John McCain "comes closer to what I believe" than Sen. Barack Obama, adding that McCain "seems to understand the Muslim threat." Read More