Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Media Matters Daily Summary 07-20-11

O'Reilly Falsely Claims No U.S. Employee Of News Corp. Has Been Implicated In Hacking Scandal
Bill O'Reilly claimed that no American employee of News Corp. has been "implicated" in the company's hacking scandal and that "in the United States, there isn't any intrusion of this story thus far on News Corp. properties. None." In fact, Les Hinton, who is an American citizen, was the CEO of News Corp. division Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal until he resigned recently as a result of the scandal. Read More

Wash. Times' Wolf "Lie[s]" To Accuse Obama Of Lying On Health Care
In a Washington Times column, Dr. Milton Wolf, a blogger who purports to be a distant cousin of the president, accused President Obama of lying about aspects of health care reform in claiming that health care reform would lower the deficit and that "there are no death panels," among other things. In fact, most of Wolf's accusations are based on persistent, long-debunked right-wing myths about health care reform. Read More

Fox Distorts Clinton To Claim He Attacked Obama Over Default Crisis
Fox News claimed that in comments former President Clinton made about the pending default crisis and the associated negotiations over the issue, Clinton attacked President Obama for his handling of the talks. In fact, Clinton was sharply criticizing Congressional Republicans and said he was "proud" of Obama. Read More

REPORT: How Facts And Pressure Forced Fox News To Cover News Corp. Hacking Scandal
In the days after News Corp.'s long-simmering phone-hacking scandal reignited, a great disparity emerged in the amount of coverage given to the saga, with Fox News giving significantly less coverage to the story than CNN and MSNBC. But as other news organizations began to highlight Fox News' relative silence on the scandal, as calls for investigations into the corporation mounted, and as resignations and arrests of top News Corp. officials mushroomed, it became impossible for Fox News to ignore the crumbling of a global media empire. Read More

UPDATED REPORT: How CNN, MSNBC, And Fox Are Continuing To Cover The News Corp. Hacking Scandal
News Corp.'s long-simmering phone-hacking scandal has progressed rapidly since it reignited, throwing its global media empire into turmoil. Yet while Fox News has spent more than twice as many segments discussing the scandal in the days since its level of coverage first came under scrutiny, including five hours of live coverage of a British Parliament committee hearing where News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch testified, a Media Matters analysis has found a continued disparity in the amount of coverage given to the scandal by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Read More

Beck Fearmongers About Border Chaos To Attack Obama's Gun Policy
On his radio show, Glenn Beck fearmongered about violence along the U.S.-Mexico border to suggest that the government will confiscate Americans' guns. In fact, the Justice Department has simply issued regulations putting in place a reporting requirement for multiple purchases of certain kinds of rifles, and, furthermore, violence in areas on the U.S. side of the border is dropping. Read More

NY Times Piece Echoes Right-Wing Falsehood On Financial Crisis
The New York Times published a piece by Reuters' BreakingViews.com that attacked the Dodd-Frank financial reform law for not sufficiently regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the piece suggested were central causes of the economic crisis. This claim echoes a right-wing talking point, but as economic experts -- including Nobel Prize-winning economist and Times columnist Paul Krugman -- have explained, it has no basis in reality. Read More

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