Media Matters Daily Summary 07-27-10

Fox News' long history of race-baiting
Howard Dean and Joan Walsh recently called out Fox News, criticizing what they called its "racist" handling of the deceptively edited Shirley Sherrod video clip. Indeed, Fox News and its personalities have a long history of aggressive race-baiting and racially charged commentary. Read More

O'Reilly falsely claims that Sherrod story marks "first time" he's had to retract a story
On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that his apology to Shirley Sherrod was the "first time in 13 years" he had to apologize or retract a story. In fact, Media Matters has documented several instances in which O'Reilly has apologized for or corrected a story that he got wrong. Read More

Beck, Fox & Friends take a trip down health care misinformation lane
Fox & Friends hosted Glenn Beck to rehash tired health care reform misinformation, including that the health care reform bill is modeled after the British system, which will lead to "very little care" and "death panels" for infants and the elderly, and that Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) appointee Donald Berwick is "into rationing care." In fact, the new health care reform law does not create a health care system modeled after the British system; the existence of death panels in health care reform has been comprehensively debunked, and in his comments about rationing, Berwick was pointing out that insurance companies already ration care. Read More

Fox's Varney still revising history to claim tax cuts caused "gigantic increase in revenues"
Fox News' purported business expert Stuart Varney falsely claimed that tax cuts enacted under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush caused "a gigantic increase in revenues to the federal treasury, reducing deficits. That's historically accurate." In fact, virtually no economist believes the evidence supports this notion.
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WND's Klein attacks mainstream Islamic organization as "radical Muslim group"
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein called the Islamic Society of North America a "radical Muslim group." In fact, ISNA is a mainstream Islamic group whose president was among Muslim leaders who met with President Bush after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Read More

Mixed message: Beck spews violent rhetoric, but tells audience to reject violence
Glenn Beck routinely admonishes his audience to reject violence, but he himself has frequently spewed violent rhetoric. Recent incidents of violence that have been linked to rhetoric like Beck's call into question which message his audience is getting. Read More

Still digging: Conservatives won't let up barrage of attacks on Shirley Sherrod
Even after Andrew Breitbart's video of Shirley Sherrod's NAACP speech was uncovered as a deceptively edited excerpt that distorted her comments, conservatives have continued to attack Sherrod with a barrage of false or ludicrous smears. Read More