Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Media Matters Daily Summary 01-13-09

Boston Globe, Wash. Post echo discredited accusation that Clinton did not condemn Suha Arafat's remarksThe Boston Globe and The Washington Post echoed the discredited accusation, advanced by conservative media figures, that Sen. Hillary Clinton did not condemn controversial comments by Suha Arafat during a 1999 trip to the West Bank, where Arafat, according to the Globe, "launched into an unscripted tirade accusing Israel of poisoning Palestinian children." In fact, Clinton reportedly "condemned Mrs. Arafat hours later, after receiving, she said, an official translation of her remarks." Read More


CNN's Lou Dobbs claimed Obama "didn't talk about NAFTA" during meeting with Calderón -- but Obama spokesman said they didCNN's Lou Dobbs claimed that President-elect Barack Obama "didn't talk about NAFTA" during a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and later claimed Obama and Calderón "didn't talk about NAFTA, after so much of it ... was made on the campaign trail." In fact, according to an Obama spokesman, Obama "expressed his continued commitment to upgrading NAFTA" and "proposed the creation of a consultative group to work on a host of issues important to the United States and Mexico, including NAFTA." Read More


Morris attacked Obama's DOJ choices with falsehoodSummary: Dick Morris used a falsehood to attack President-elect Barack Obama's choices for positions at the Department of Justice, asserting that Eric Holder "approved of the Clinton/Reno 'wall' preventing intelligence from finding out what criminal investigators had found out." However, the so-called "wall" policy was established well before President Clinton took office and was retained by the Bush administration prior to September 11, 2001. Read More


Hannity criticized lyrics that call women "B's" and "ho's," but didn't object to his "friend" Ted Nugent calling Clinton a "worthless bitch"Discussing demonstrations held around the country against degrading lyrics in the music industry, Sean Hannity said, "I don't like the lyrics that refer to women as 'B's' and 'ho's.' " But in August 2007, Hannity aired concert footage of Ted Nugent, whom he referred to as a "friend," calling then-Sen. Barack Obama a "piece of shit" and referring to Sen. Hillary Clinton as a "worthless bitch." Read More


Ignoring Donohue's own incendiary comments, Wash. Times quotes Donohue criticizing choice of Robinson to give prayerA Washington Times article about President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Bishop Gene Robinson to deliver a prayer as part of the inauguration ceremonies quoted Catholic League president Bill Donohue criticizing the choice as "polarizing" but did not note Donohue's own "polarizing" comments regarding gays and lesbians, Muslims, Jews, and others. Read More


Fox & Friends hosts, Beck cite fictional congressional testimony by 24's "Jack Bauer" in defense of tortureFox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade falsely suggested that only "people at the U.N." want to close Guantánamo, while co-hosts Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson, as well as Glenn Beck, used TV drama 24 as a justification for the use of torture. In fact, Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and five former secretaries of state are among those who have said that Guantánamo should be closed. Read More


Gibson, Couric uncritically aired Bush's comment calling Abu Ghraib a "disappointment"ABC's World News and the CBS Evening News and uncritically aired President Bush's statement that "Abu Ghraib obviously was a huge disappointment," without noting that a 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report found that the abuse there "was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own" and that Donald Rumsfeld's "authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques and subsequent interrogation policies and plans approved by senior military and civilian officials conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody." Read More


ABC, CBS report Bush's defense of Katrina response without noting congressional criticismABC World News and CBS Evening News aired comments by President Bush at his January 12 press conference in defense of his administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina, during which he asserted in part: "[C]ould I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge?" However, neither network's report noted the bipartisan congressional criticism of the Bush administration's response to Katrina. Read More


On job-loss numbers, Fox's Garrett changed the metric, falsely asserting Obama's statement was untrueSummary: On Special Report, Major Garrett falsely accused President-elect Obama of making an untrue assertion when Obama said that the 2.589 million jobs lost in 2008 were "the most since World War II." In fact, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there has been no greater net job decline in any calendar year since the end of World War II than occurred in 2008. Read More

No comments: