Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Media Matters Daily Summary 06-01-10

Memo to media: Do not trust Andrew Breitbart and James O'Keefe
Andrew Breitbart and convicted criminal James O'Keefe are promising to unveil another video. In assessing Breitbart and O'Keefe's claims, media should keep in mind their record of dishonest and illegal practices and their failed attempt to show that ACORN was engaging in criminal behavior. Read More

Breitbart falsely suggests ACORN employees "help[ed] set up a prostitution ring in every single office"
On ABC's Good Morning America, Andrew Breitbart falsely suggested that the ACORN employees in James O'Keefe's videos "help[ed] set up a prostitution ring in every single office." In fact, several ACORN employees either refused to help O'Keefe -- in one such case, O'Keefe has admitted as much -- or contacted the police following their encounters with him. Read More

Surprise! O'Keefe edits out inconvenient footage from new BigGovernment video
In a video posted on BigGovernment.com, conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe claims that he has uncovered census supervisors in a New Jersey office "systematically encouraging employees to falsify information on their time sheets." Following his pattern of selectively editing videos, O'Keefe excluded a clip -- which was subsequently aired by ABC -- of a census leader telling workers that they must carefully and accurately report on their time sheets the number of miles they drive when they are doing their enumeration work. Read More

Hitchens attacks Kagan for brief on Vatican sex abuse case that she didn't even file
Christopher Hitchens attacked Elena Kagan for a brief the Solicitor General's office filed arguing that the Vatican should be treated as a sovereign government and therefore a sex abuse case should be dismissed. But Kagan did not even file the brief in question, and no one in the case argued that the Supreme Court should find that the Vatican is not a sovereign government. Read More

Special Report's disparate coverage of Kirk's, Blumenthal's military service statements
In its first respective programs following media reports indicating Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Mark Kirk had made false statements about their military service, Fox News' Special Report devoted nine times as much coverage to Blumenthal's misstatements as it did to Kirk's. Special Report also reported that Blumenthal's statements were "offensive" and his candidacy is "finished." Read More

Military disparity: CNN ran 11 segments on Blumenthal's service claims, none about Kirk's
The day after a report that Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal had made false claims about his military service, CNN devoted 11 segments to the story. By contrast, CNN ran no segments on Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk's admission that he had made a false claim about his military service in the two days after that story broke. Read More

Beck uses tangential links to tie Obama to Gaza flotilla incident
Glenn Beck purported to link President Obama to the Free Gaza Movement and its recent flotilla by exaggerating his connections to individuals he says are involved in the movement, including William Ayers. Beck went on to claim that while there was no "conspiracy" between Obama and those individuals, "there is coordination" because they "think alike." Read More

Beck lies about his history of "dragging" Obama's family "into the debate"
Addressing comments he made on his May 28 radio show attacking President Obama's daughter, Glenn Beck lied about his history of "dragging" Obama's family "into the debate," falsely claiming that he had "never done it until last Friday." In fact, as Media Matters has previously documented, Beck has repeatedly brought up Obama's family in his commentary over the last several months. Read More

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