Friday, August 14, 2009

Media Matters Daily Summary 08-14-09

Doocy ignores Fox personalities' role in advancing "death panels" smear
On Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy debunked the "death panels" smear but completely ignored the role of Fox News hosts and guests in advancing it, saying "these so-called death panels as you have read about on the blogosphere and heard about elsewhere, these have been so incendiary, using that term -- and what they were referring to was this provision in the House bill that ... would provide funding so you could talk to a doctor and others about living wills and also hospice care and stuff like that. But it has been such a third-rail issue." Fox personalities have repeatedly fearmongered and misinformed on "death panels" and end-of-life care provisions in health reform legislation. Read More

Pruden smears Democrats to back claim that Congress is in a "bubble"
Purporting to give evidence that Congress is over-privileged and disconnected from voters, Wesley Pruden falsely claimed in his Washington Times column that Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad "are under investigation by ethics committees for taking sweetheart mortgages" and that "Democratic congressmen (and women) denounce the voters who sent them to Washington as Nazis, Brown Shirts and the 'un-American.' " In fact, the Senate Ethics Committee found that Dodd and Conrad "did not violate ethics rules," and Democrats did not refer to health care opponents as "Nazis," "Brown Shirts," or "un-American"; rather, they denounced protesters' tactics. Read More

Cavuto ignores reality in claiming "not a one" economist "credits that stimulus"
Neil Cavuto falsely claimed that "not a one, not a one" economist in the Bloomberg survey of economists "credits that stimulus" with helping the economy begin to recover. But in presenting the survey findings, Bloomberg in fact reported that Kenneth Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board in New York, stated, "We've averted the worst, and there are clear signs the stimulus is working." Additionally, several independent economists have concluded that the stimulus has already played a significant role in helping the economy begin to recover. Read More

WSJ misrepresents Obama interview to fearmonger about end-of-life rationing
Claiming that it's "[n]o wonder so many seniors rebel" at President Obama's health care proposals, a Wall Street Journal editorial misrepresented a New York Times interview of Obama to claim that Obama seems to believes that end-of-life "medical issues are all justifiably political questions that government or some panel of philosopher kings can and should decide." In fact, in the interview the Journal cited, Obama made clear that an advisory panel that would issue guidance on end-of-life issues would "not [be] determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance." Read More

Special Report portrays "death panels" falsehood as he said/she said issue
Fox News' Bret Baier repeated Sarah Palin's false assertion that the end-of-life counseling provided for under the House health care reform bill would, in Baier's words, "not be voluntary as the president says." Baier did not note that the counseling would indeed be voluntary and that Palin's suggestion that the legislation would create a "death panel" is false. Read More

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