Media Matters Daily Summary 05-23-08

Fox News' Cavuto ignored Hagee's Hitler comments, McCain's courting of his endorsement

On Fox News' Your World, Neil Cavuto reported on Sen. John McCain's rejection of Rev. John Hagee's endorsement, but he didn't note Hagee's remarks about Adolf Hitler and Zionism or that McCain admitted he sought Hagee's endorsement. Read More

CBS' Reid repeated McCain's statement that Obama "impugn[ed]" his motives over GI bill, did not note McCain impugned Obama's motives
In a report about a back-and-forth between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain over a recently passed GI bill, CBS' Chip Reid uncritically quoted from a McCain statement, in which McCain stated that, instead of "tak[ing] the time and trouble to understand this issue," Obama "prefers impugning the motives of his opponent." But, in the same statement, McCain himself impugned Obama's motives. Read More

LA Times ignored McCain flip-flop on whether he believed Falwell was an "agent of intolerance"
The Los Angeles Times reported that Sen. John McCain "notably call[ed] Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell 'agents of intolerance' in the 2000 presidential campaign," without noting that McCain later said he no longer believed Falwell was an "agent of intolerance" and delivered the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University in May 2006. Read More

Russert: "[T]he story about Senator McCain and lobbyists and ethics and money -- that continues" -- but not on Meet the Press
On February 24, Tim Russert stated on NBC's Today that "the story about Senator [John] McCain and lobbyists and ethics and money -- that continues. It's been on the front page of several papers for the last three days. ... We have not heard the end of that discussion about Senator McCain." However, since that date, "the story" has not "continue[d]" on Meet the Press. Read More

Wash. Post, LA Times uncritically quoted White House assertion that it opposes war funding bill because it includes domestic spending
In articles reporting the White House's threat to veto a supplemental war funding bill, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times uncritically quoted Dana Perino saying, "This is the wrong way to consider domestic spending, and Congress should not go down this path." But neither the Times nor the Post pointed out that President Bush signed supplemental war funding bills that included domestic spending in June 2006 and December 2005. Read More

Beck apologized for airing portion of Bill Clinton speech "out of context"
Glenn Beck apologized for playing a cropped portion of a speech former President Bill Clinton made in January and "taking it out of context." After replaying the portion of the speech in which Clinton said, "We just have to slow down our economy" in order to combat global warming, Beck stated: "That's what we played yesterday. However, if you look at the text of the entire speech, that is taken out of context. What it is, and actually it's horrible, and I apologize for it ever getting on the air in this context." Read More