Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Media Matters Daily Summary 10-14-08

Savage: "[N]ot all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim"
On his radio show, Michael Savage said that "not all Muslims are terrorists," then falsely asserted that "all terrorists happen to be Muslim." Savage stated: "I am a believer in all five of the world's religions. As long as they're peace-loving and are pro-American, as far as I'm concerned, all religions are equal." He continued, "However, when you consider the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim and that the 19 hijackers who destroyed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were Muslim, mainly from Saudi Arabia, we have a very real obligation to remember that." Read More

AP repeated McCain campaign's false claim that Obama "failed to tell the truth" about Ayers, ignored own reporting on Palin's "palling" claim
The AP uncritically repeated the McCain campaign's false assertion that Sen. Barack Obama "failed to tell the truth" about his association with William Ayers and uncritically reported Gov. Sarah Palin's claim that Obama "pall[ed] around with terrorists." Read More

Cunningham: "I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says"
Radio host Bill Cunningham stated: "I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says." Cunningham also asserted that "Flavor Flav, 50 Cent, and Diddy" are "really in charge of the [Obama] Inaugural [Ball]." Read More

Fox News' Kelly mocked ACORN for accurate statement about Florida registration law
Fox News' Megyn Kelly mocked ACORN's statement that it was required under Florida law to submit a voter registration form filed under the name "Mickey Mouse" to the Orange County, Florida, board of elections. In fact, Florida law calls for entities withholding voter registration forms to face a fine of $1,000 for each registration they withhold. Read More

Dick Morris falsely claimed Obama was "general counsel" for ACORN
On Hannity & Colmes, Dick Morris falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama served as "general counsel" to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In fact, while Obama was part of a team of attorneys that represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the State of Illinois, Obama was never "general counsel" to ACORN. Read More

Conservative radio hosts repeat discredited claim that Obama has not produced valid U.S. birth certificate
Radio hosts Michael Savage, Rick Roberts, and Chris Baker repeated the discredited claim that Sen. Barack Obama has not produced a valid U.S. birth certificate. In fact, the Obama campaign posted a copy of Obama's birth certificate on its "Fight the Smears" website, and reportedly provided the original document to FactCheck.org, whose staff concluded that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship." Read More

Wash. Times' Gaffney made false and baseless claims about Obama's birth certificate, purported "ties" to Khalid al-Mansour
Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney Jr. falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama "has, to date, failed to provide an authentic birth certificate which could clear up the matter" of "whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States." In fact, even the right-wing website WorldNetDaily found that a birth certificate supplied by the Obama campaign is authentic. Read More

Sowell falsely claimed Obama proposes merit pay be "measured by teachers themselves"
In a syndicated column criticizing Sen. Barack Obama's education plan, Thomas Sowell falsely claimed that under Obama's "merit pay for teachers" proposal, merit would be "measured by teachers themselves," rendering Obama's reference to merit pay, Sowell wrote, "meaningless." In fact, Obama has said that he will work with teachers unions to develop a system to determine merit pay, not that he would allow teachers to evaluate their own performance or independently choose the measures by which merit is evaluated. Read More

Cunningham invoked "[s]ix-six-six" and "the beast" in discussing "Barack Hussein Obama"
Stating that 666,000 new voters have registered in Ohio, Bill Cunningham said on October 10: "Six, six, six. The mark of the beast. The great majority, of course, are registered by ACORN. ... Who conducted ACORN seminars to tell ACORN employees and others how to cheat the system? Barack Hussein Obama. I may declare him to be the beast. Six, six, six. It could be the end of all days." On the October 13 edition of Cunningham's show, a caller said of Obama, "He may be the Antichrist." Read More

WSJ editorial leaves out relevant information in smear of ACORN
The Wall Street Journal asserted that Sen. Barack Obama's "kind of organizers work at Acorn, the militant advocacy group that is turning up in reports about voter fraud across the country." The editorial cited as evidence reports that ACORN submitted allegedly false or duplicate voter registration applications this year in Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, North Carolina, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, Connecticut, and Texas. But the editorial did not note that the statutes of at least nine of those 11 states require third parties registering prospective voters to submit to election officials all registration forms they received -- even those they believed to be false or duplicate applications. Read More

ABC's Robin Roberts did not challenge Giuliani's tax falsehood
ABC's Robin Roberts did not challenge Rudy Giuliani's claim that Sen. Barack Obama "wants to raise taxes." In fact, Obama has repeatedly said he would cut taxes for families making less than $250,000 per year, and Sen. John McCain's own chief economic adviser reportedly said that it is inaccurate to claim that "Barack Obama raises taxes." Read More

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