Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Media Matters Daily Summary 01-05-10

Gingrich relies on "seriously flawed" "estimate" of Gitmo detainees who returned to terrorism
In explaining his claim that "[w]e are in much greater danger than we were a year ago," Newt Gingrich asserted that "one estimate is that 74 of the released terrorists from Guantánamo have gone back to active terrorism against the United States." However, the "estimate" Gingrich referred to was originally reported in a New York Times article which the paper's public editor called "seriously flawed"; the Times later acknowledged that, according to the Pentagon, only 27 of those released detainees had been "confirmed as engaging in terrorism" and the "premise" that they had previously engaged in terrorism "remains unproven." Read More

Rove hypocrisy: Doesn't "understand" why Obama was "off the stage" for four days after attempted attack
On Hannity, Karl Rove attacked President Obama for waiting four days before publicly commenting on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempt to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight, commenting, "I don't understand why keeping the president off the stage and then not having him explain it for four days is supposed to reassure us." But in 2001, when Rove himself was serving in the White House, President Bush was "off the stage" for six days before responding to Richard Reid's attempt to detonate a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight. Read More

Quick Fact: Monica Crowley falsely claims "Republicans have been locked out" of health care debate "from the very beginning"
On Fox News' Happening Now, contributor Monica Crowley falsely claimed that "Republicans have been locked out" of the health care debate in the House and Senate "from the very beginning." In fact, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Senate Finance Committee bills contained nearly 200 Republican amendments. Read More

Fox News goes on a witch hunt for Janet Napolitano
Since the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, Fox News has waged war on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, going so far as to ask whether she should be fired. In doing so, various Fox News figures and outlets have seized on Napolitano's comments that "the system worked" after the attempted terrorist attack while ignoring both Napolitano's later clarification that she was discussing the emergency response notification system that took place following the attempted attack, and that Bush administration officials Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge previously claimed success for passengers' ability to thwart "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid's December 2001 attempted bombing of a domestic airline. Read More

Fox News: Keeping the faith
Religion is ... tough. Read More

Morris claimed "9-11 happened" because Clinton treated '93 WTC bombing as a crime
Attacking President Obama for indicting alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in civilian court, Dick Morris asserted that "the reason 9-11 happened is that Bill Clinton treated the '93 bombing of the Trade Center as a crime, not as an act of war." Morris' claim echoed Sean Hannity's previous suggestion that documents released during the trial of the 1993 bombing mastermind "tipped off" Osama bin Laden; in fact, Attorney General Eric Holder testified that this charge is based on "misinformation" because prosecutors had the power to request that such documents be protected from release. Read More

Days before MLK Day, Beck again pilfers King's words to promote himself
On the January 4 broadcast of his radio show, days before the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., Glenn Beck introduced a new promotion for his show that includes a clip of King saying, "Now is the time," lifted from King's "I have a dream" speech. Beck -- who has a history of making racially charged remarks -- has repeatedly appropriated King's message to promote himself and his shows or defend against criticism. Read More

No comments: