Media Matters Daily Summary 06-02-10

NY Post's Crudele falsely accuses Census of using "statistical tricks" to boost employment figures
In two New York Post columns, John Crudele falsely accused the Census Bureau of using "statistical tricks" by "repeatedly hiring and firing workers without any apparent reason" in order "to artificially boost the nation's employment figures." In fact, in making this claim, Crudele distorted the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) method for gathering jobs figures, and the Census Bureau has flatly denied that it is "repeatedly hiring and firing workers." Read More

Right-wing media rush to blame Obama for Gaza flotilla incident
Following Israel's raid on a Palestinian aid flotilla that resulted in nine deaths, the right-wing media has strained to find ways to blame President Obama for the incident from criticizing his foreign policy to attempting to link him to the Gaza flotilla through Bill Ayers and Jodie Evans. Read More

O'Keefe cohort reruns year-old myth that Obama seized control of Census
Resurrecting a faux-controversy pushed by Republicans in early 2009, Shaughn Adeleye -- who worked with right-wing filmmaker James O'Keefe to covertly film census training sessions - claimed that President Obama "moved control of the census to directly report to the White House." In fact, the administration made it clear that the Census director would report to the commerce secretary. Read More

Right-wing media attack Holder for launching investigation into oil spill
Led by Fox News, right-wing media have attacked Attorney General Eric Holder over his announcement that the Justice Department has begun civil and criminal investigations into the Gulf oil spill. Their attacks echo previous criticism from Fox and right-wing media figures over SEC charges and congressional hearings into Goldman Sachs and hearings into a Toyota vehicle recall. Read More

CNN poll pushes falsehood that Kagan "barred military recruiters from campus"
A CNN/Opinion Research poll question falsely claimed that as Harvard Law Dean, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan "barred military recruiters from campus." In fact, Kagan did not bar military recruiters from campus, and Harvard Law students had access to military recruiters during her entire tenure as dean. Read More

Right-wing media distort U.S. position on Gaza flotilla incident
Right-wing media have claimed that the United States showed "hostility" and "lack of support" for Israel by joining a United Nations resolution condemning "acts" that led to deaths and injuries in Israel's raid on a Palestinian aid flotilla. But the U.S. reportedly negotiated to "pare down the language" of the resolution and has "avoided any hint of criticism of the Israeli action in its public statements." Read More

Conservatives: Obama isn't to blame for oil spill, but blame him anyway
In recent weeks, conservative media have declared that Obama isn't to blame for the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill while simultaneously attacking his response to it. Read More

Warning to the media: Breitbart bites the hand that feeds him
After appearing on ABC's Good Morning America, Andrew Breitbart criticized host George Stephanopoulos, claiming that he had "sandbagged" Breitbart and fellow guest James O'Keefe, continuing a pattern of attacking hosts after appearing on their shows. Read More

Legal experts debunk Hannity's Sestak "crime" claims point-by-point
Over the past week, Sean Hannity and his guests have cited six different statutes that they claim were violated when the White House offered a position on a panel to Rep. Joe Sestak. Legal experts have repudiated the claim that any of those statutes apply to the offer. Read More

Glenn Beck doesn't "know why we're not having real conversations"
On his Fox News show, Glenn Beck proclaimed that he doesn't "know why we're not having real conversations" in America. During the same show, Beck compared the current state of our country to the biblical story of Moses and the films Star Wars and Robin Hood and cited a national division between supporters of Woodstock and the Apollo Project. Read More

Glenn Beck's long history of vicious personal attacks
Glenn Beck apologized for his attack on President Obama's daughter by stating that he hopes it represents his "bottom." But Beck's attack was hardly out of character, as he has frequently resorted to vicious personal attacks against his perceived enemies and their families. Read More

Leaked Vatican document: Israeli occupation ‘unjust’

RAW STORY

A Vatican document leaked on Tuesday calls the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories a "political injustice", Italy's ANSA news agency reported.

The occupation is a "political injustice imposed on the Palestinians", the Vatican says, according to extracts quoted by ANSA.

"The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories makes daily life difficult for freedom of movement, the economy and social and religious life," the text says.

The Instrumentum Laboris, a working document on an upcoming synod of bishops on the Middle East, was embargoed for release until Sunday, when Pope Benedict XVI was to present it during a visit to Cyprus.

ANSA's report came as Israel drew worldwide condemnation for a deadly commando raid on Monday against a flotilla of boats laden with humanitarian aid for occupied Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007..........................

Prime Minster David Cameron: Israeli Flotilla Raid ‘Completely Unacceptable,’ Blockade ‘Strengthens Hamas’s Grip’ On Gaza

THINK PROGRESS

Since the Israeli raid on a flotilla of humanitarian aid ships bound for Gaza this week that resulted in 9 deaths and widespread international condemnation, American conservatives rushed to defend the raid, echoing Israeli officials’ erroneous claims that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. At the same time, the Obama administration and leading Democrats in Congress won’t condemn the attack. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to comment on it and an Israeli government spokesman thanked the U.S. for working “behind the scenes to water down” a U.N. Security Council statement on the incident.

But across the Atlantic, America’s closest friend and ally has taken a decidedly different position. Today during the UK parliament’s Prime Minister’s questions, acting Labour Party leader Harriet Harman asked Prime Minster David Cameron about the incident, noting that Israel’s Gaza blockade is “prolonging” Palestinians’ “suffering” and hindering Middle East peace. Cameron, a conservative, agreed:

CAMERON: What has happened is completely unacceptable. We should be clear abou that. And we should also deplore the loss of life. [...]

We should do everything we can through the United Nations, where resolution 1860 is aboslutely clear about the need to end the blockade and to open up Gaza. And what I would say in addition is this, that friends of Israel, and I count myself a friend of Israel, should be saying to the Israelis that the blockade actually strengthens Hamas’s grip on the economy and on Gaza and it’s in their own interests to lift it and to allow these vital supplies to get through.

Watch it:

While Israel’s logic of the blockade has been that “a collapsing economy will convince Gaza’s people to push Hamas from power,” the reality is that ordinary Gazans are suffering and Hamas “has benefited handsomely” from it:

They’re doing so, veteran Gaza businessmen say, thanks to the fact that Hamas can generate capital while all its potential competitors are running dry. They charge that Hamas and its associates have been using their control of smuggling tunnels, money changing, and tax revenue to buy prime tracts of land and buildings across Gaza, particularly along the enclave’s main boulevards.

“Thanks to Israel, while everyone else suffers, day after day Hamas is strengthening itself with the blockade,” says Amr Hamad, executive manager of Gaza’s Palestinian Federation of Industries (PFI), a private-sector organization. “And they are using this position to deepen their roots in Gaza.”

Even a Bush administration State Department official said in 2008 that the blockade “wasn’t working.” “Within Gaza, Hamas seems the least effected by the closure,” he said.

As Oil Arrives On MS Beaches, Will Barbour Continue To Praise BP And Mock News Coverage Of The Spill?

THINK PROGRESS

The Biloxi Sun Herald reports that oil began covering two miles of Mississippi’s Petit Bois Island yesterday as a “larger glob crept close to Dauphin Island in Alabama, and the edge of the main slick has moved to within about 35 miles of Mississippi, about half the distance it was last week.” Much of the oil hitting the beaches had “escaped detection because it was floating a couple of feet below the surface.” Reacting to the looming disaster, Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) sounded the alarm to local press yesterday. “This could turn out to be something catastrophic and terrible, but that has just not been the case so far,” said Barbour.

Barbour’s rhetoric yesterday strikes a very different note from his upbeat tone since the spill. Shortly after the spill, Barbour encouraged tourists to “enjoy the beach,” even as dead dolphins were washing ashore. In another instance, Barbour incredulously declared, “some in the news media keep forcing this on the public as the equivalent of Exxon Valdez. Well, the difference is just enormous.”

And as early as last week, Barbour went on CNN to blame “news coverage” for the state’s woes, telling Wolf Blitzer that “we haven’t had enough oil hit Mississippi’s beaches to fill up a milk jug.” Barbour went out of his way to lavish praise on BP, exclaiming that the British oil conglomerate has been completely cooperative:

BARBOUR: But we haven’t had, really, any impact. I mean, we haven’t had enough oil hit Mississippi’s beaches to fill up a milk jug. Now, we’re prepared and we’re prepared for the worst. But thus far, we haven’t had any kind of incursion, except the news coverage is killing our tourist business. Everybody thinks that the Gulf Coast all the way around is ankle deep in oil. And, of course, it’s not. [...]

BARBOUR: We have. BP has never said no to any requests we have made. Now, some requests we’ve made they haven’t been able to perform. But they have never said no. The federal government, whether it’s the Coast Guard or whomever, has worked hard with us. Like I say, they’re giving a lot more attention to Louisiana and should be. But we are satisfied that they’re trying as hard as they can and that they are being very cooperative. I’m not going to complain.

Watch it:

Barbour’s rise in politics has been largely fueled by the oil and gas industry. When Barbour served as the chairman on the RNC during the 1994 and 1996 election cycles, he courted oil and coal companies to donate over $30 million to Republicans — nearly three times the amount given to Democrats. The lobbying firm Barbour founded relied highly on oil industry clients, with Barbour personally lobbying for regulation changes to the Bush White House. And Barbour’s election to his current office owes directly to his friends in the fossil fuel business — oil and gas companies provided $1.8 million dollars in contributions when Barbour ran for Governor.

While Barbour shilled for BP during the first weeks of BP’s oil crisis, Mississippi’s oily beaches may force him to reconsider his pro-BP posture.

Update - Barbour has downplayed the oil spill and encouraged families to continue to visit the state and enjoy the natural environment. “We don’t wash our face in it, but it doesn’t stop us from jumping off the boat to ski,” Barbour said in mid-May. Earlier today, CNN reported that families have been spotted swimming on Mississippi beaches soaked in oil. A reporter saw a child covered in and playing with oil, even as clean up crews worked nearby.

From The Archives: Issa Snared In '98 In His Own Military Exaggeration

TPM

As several politicians have been snared thanks to fibbing about their military records, TPM took a trip down memory lane exploring others who exaggerated service. It turns out that 12 years ago when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was running for Senate, the San Francisco Examiner uncovered that his Army record was in doubt.

The Examiner published in May 1998 a devastating article detailing the conflicts between Issa's public statements and public records. A focus in the story was Issa's claim he protected then-President Richard Nixon as part of an "elite Army bomb unit" at the World Series in 1971. But it turns out Nixon didn't even attend the games.

The Examiner scoured military records and concluded that Issa's service on the squad "was marred by a bad conduct rating, a demotion and allegations that he had stolen a fellow soldier's car." It cited his 1998 campaign biography saying he served in the Army nine years, even though records showed he served just over five years. He was enlisted from 1970-1972 and was in a college Army ROTC program from 1972 through 1976, the Examiner reported. It also noted that an Issa press release said he was "detailed to the Army security team" which traveled with Nixon, and quoted from a 1990 San Diego Union story that said Issa "was on a bomb disposal unit for President Nixon and got to see the 1971 World Series because Nixon wanted to go and the stadiums had to be secured."

Here's the key part:

The records show that Issa's service on what he terms an "Army security team" amounted to less than six months on a bomb-disposal squad in 1971. That's scant experience to qualify him for presidential security duty, former GI bomb experts say.

Issa couldn't have guarded Nixon at the World Series because the president didn't attend, according to the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda.

The Examiner's reporting left open the possibility that Issa had just gotten confused about the details, but he's never cleared up the facts and an Issa spokesman today did not directly address the allegations.

The paper wrote that former soldiers "said it was impossible that Issa would have been involved if, as his service record indicates, he had been reassigned to the supply depot during the games." Another source confirmed to the Examiner that Issa "had indeed served temporarily with a bomb detachment that had protected the president" in a "short-term" post.

The Examiner said in their investigation that Issa routinely cited his Army service while running for the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The paper also reported that Issa denounced Boxer as "someone who 'hates the military.'" Read the entire Examiner piece here.

The Examiner also interviewed a former GI who said Issa stole his car, and said their piece mentioned the auto charges following a Los Angeles Times report detailing the 1972 arrest of Issa and his brother on suspicion of auto theft. Those charges were dropped and Issa said at the time he was wrongly targeted. He also has blamed his brother for the incident.

"When people ask me why I got into the car alarm business, I tell them the truth. ... It was because my brother was a car thief," he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003.

An Issa spokesman questioned the relevance of this story given that Issa is not on the ballot like Mark Kirk or Richard Blumenthal, and provided us with a commendation that then-Lt. Col. Wesley Clark bestowed upon Issa in 1980 for exemplary service.

You can read it in full here, but here's a highlight:

"CPT Issa consistently demonstrated an unusually high standard of professional ethics. ... This energetic, enthusiastic, and intelligent officer has the potential to be successful at any military job at any level. ... This officer's performance far exceeded that of any other reserve officer who has worked in the battalion. He demonstrated rare initiative, forcefulness, and competence in upgrading the unit's administration prior to the Annual General Inspection. He would be an outstanding commander or staff officer at Battalion or Brigade level. Promote ahead of contemporaries. Unlimited potential."

Spokesman Kurt Bardella also issued this statement when given an opportunity to comment: "Congressman Issa is very proud of his distinguished record of military service and that's reflected by the fact that he was honorably discharged." He said anyone "who wants to challenge or scrutinize his record of service" should read the Clark praise.

Gov. Brewer claims her father ‘died fighting’ the Nazis — but he actually passed away 10 years after WWII.

TPM

It's not exactly Richard Blumenthal or Mark Kirk territory. And yet...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) told The Arizona Republic in a recent interview that her father "died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany."

Only problem is, that's apparently not quite true.

According to the Arizona Guardian, Brewer's father, Wilford Drinkwine, died of lung disease. In California. In 1955.

During the war, the Guardian reports, Brewer's father was a civilian supervisor for a naval munitions depot in Nevada. Brewer's spokesperson told the newspaper that he inhaled toxic fumes while working there that eventually killed him -- and that the governor wasn't "embellishing the story at all." Drinkwine was on full medical disability when he died, the spokesman said.

It seems entirely possible that Brewer simply meant that her father died of an illness that was a direct cause of his employment at a wartime munitions factor.

Here's Brewer's full quote. She's referring to criticism she's taken over her state's controversial new immigration law.

"Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lose him when I was 11 because of that...and then to have them call me Hitler's daughter. It hurts. It's ugliness beyond anything I've ever experienced."

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

Anti-government critic Bachmann chides Obama for not ‘commandeering’ boats to deal with the oil spill.

THINK PROGRESS

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a darling of the tea party movement and a loyal ally to House Republican leadership, is known for decrying almost every form of government action as socialism. Bachmann has denounced emergency loans to banks, student lending programs, health reform, and regulations as examples of “gangster” government and onerous government takeovers. “People don’t want the federal government to either own or control the private economy,” she said. But despite her opposition to government, Bachmann took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday afternoon to slam President Obama for lacking “competence” because he did not use the government to seize ships to deal with BP’s oil spill. “Where were the boats that could have been commandeered to be sent into this region to deal with the oil plume,” Bachmann thundered with characteristic disgust:

BACHMANN: The administration, they were hands off. They didn’t do anything. Where were the boats that could have been commandeered by the government to be sent into this region to deal with that oil plume as it was coming up in the water and destroying marine life? Nowhere to be found. Why? The administration was hands off on this policy.

Watch it:

Bachmann is not the only anti-government conservative who is eager to bash Obama by now advocating government takeover of the oil spill. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) spent much of the summer of 2009 mocking “Washington, D.C. and other officials” for seeking to “spend more money” during an economic downturn. But now, Jindal is furiously begging federal officials to spend more money assisting with the oil spill control and clean up. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who denounced clean energy efficiency standards as “setting up a global warming Gestapo,” is now also pleading for the federal government to takeover the oil clean up response. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson articulates the progressive case for federal action here.