Monday, January 12, 2009

Media Matters Daily Summary 01-12-09

On Geraldo, Coulter still lying in defense of Swift Boat VetsResponding to Media Matters, Ann Coulter again defended her new book's false claim that the Swift Boat Vets "weren't forced to retract any part of their story" by again falsely claiming -- even after Media Matters exposed the falsehood in her defense of her original claim -- that the "example" of a retraction Media Matters cited was simply a correction of William Schachte's rank. In fact, in addition to other reported retractions, the Swift Boat Vets changed their account of a 1968 mission, for which Sen. John Kerry received his first Purple Heart, to claim Schachte was aboard a skimmer with Kerry during the mission. Read More


Like other Fox News hosts, Hannity falsely claimed Obama's economic recovery plan gives money to people who "don't pay any taxes"Fox News' Sean Hannity falsely claimed that President-elect Barack Obama's economic plan gives money to "people that don't pay any taxes," echoing the oft-repeated myth from the presidential campaign that Obama's proposed tax cuts would go to people who don't pay taxes. In fact, Obama has proposed giving the tax credit to "working families," which means they do pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. Read More


Notwithstanding his retraction of similar comments, Hume falsely claimed George H.W. Bush "refrain[s] from comment on other political figures"Notwithstanding his previous retraction of similar comments, Brit Hume asserted on Fox News Sunday that it was "very like" President George H.W. Bush "to refrain from comment on other political figures, the incoming president, and so on." In fact, Bush repeatedly criticized President Bill Clinton's policies while Clinton was in office. Read More


Wash. Post reports without challenging Bush claim that military deficit spending post-9-11 was unavoidableA Washington Post article repeated the Bush administration's assertion that "increased spending on counterterrorism, national security and the military after the Sept. 11 attacks" was an "unavoidable" cause of the large budget deficits the administration has run up since 2001. In fact, much of that spending was for the United States' avoidable war in Iraq, which played no role in the 9-11 attacks. Read More


Ignoring pre-election remarks, media advance theme that Obama only now acknowledges he may have to "scale back" campaign agendaMedia figures have claimed or suggested that President-elect Barack Obama is only now admitting that he may have to scale back his campaign agenda as a result of the weak economy. In fact, Obama repeatedly said prior to the November 2008 election that some policies he proposed on the campaign trail might need to be delayed because of economic conditions. Read More

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