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Peeling Off Conservatives' AstroTurf Mask

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Chris Harris - Nov. 04 (News) - As these "AstroTurf" organizations sprouted up, progressive operatives and bloggers scrambled to link them to big business and political players in Washington. Well, the scrambling days are over.

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Communications arm? Fox & Friends recites misleading GOP press release on stimulus

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 23 (News Analysis) - Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Gretchen Carlton parroted a House Republican press release and repeated its claim that the stimulus impact is "6 million jobs shy of what the administration promised us" since the administration stated "that 3.5 million jobs would be created. And, in fact, the United States has lost 2.7 million since the stimulus plan." However, the administration estimated that by 2011 -- not September 2009, when the 2.7 million job losses since February were recorded -- 3.5 million jobs would be created or saved by the stimulus compared to the number of jobs that would have existed at the end of 2010 had the government not passed the legislation.

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Attack on White House criticism of Fox follows years of GOP assaults on media

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 23 (News Analysis) - Following White House communications director Anita Dunn's entirely justified criticisms of Fox News as an "arm" of the Republican Party, conservative media figures have attacked both Dunn and the Obama administration. But Media Matters for America has compiled a list of organized attacks that GOP leaders -- often aided by Fox News -- have conducted against media outlets based on groundless complaints of bias; those attacks have included boycotts or threatened boycotts of media outlets, efforts to revoke journalists' credentials or ban them from press planes, and even calls to have journalists prosecuted.

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Right again makes an anti-American ass of itself following Obama's Nobel win

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Karl Frisch - Oct. 10 (Opinion) - But sadly, Obama's words failed to touch the hearts of some of the world's most esteemed and principled critics and commentators, all of whom have proven their love for America and her values time and again. I'm kidding of course.

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Hannity cites rationing in U.K. to attack public option -- but U.S. insurance companies already ration care

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 08 (News Analysis) - On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity attacked the public option by stating that "[e]verywhere socialized medicine has been tried it's failed. It ends up in rationing," and pointing to women with breast cancer in Great Britain who are denied drugs by "the government rationing body." But Hannity's attack that "the government option" would introduce rationing for "women with breast cancer" is undermined by the fact that private insurance companies in the United States already ration care; in fact, private insurers routinely deny care to cancer patients, often because they are found to have pre-existing conditions.

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Conservatives push Reagan's 1961 attacks on "socialized medicine" but ignore that he was criticizing Medicare

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Aug. 17 (News Analysis) - On August 14, the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, and O'Reilly Factor guest host Laura Ingraham featured a recording of Ronald Reagan speaking in 1961 against "socialized medicine" for the American Medical Association's Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Medicare. Neither Drudge, Limbaugh, nor Ingraham, however, noted that Reagan was speaking out against an early version of Medicare, which has become very popular since it was enacted 44 years ago, or that Reagan's dire predictions of curtailments of freedom were never realized.

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Stamp of approval: Media tout Obama polling falsehood

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Apr. 29 (Investigative Report) - Several media figures and outlets have falsely claimed that President Obama's approval rating is lower than that of most or all recent presidents, according to Gallup. In fact, Gallup itself recently reported that, by two different measures, Obama's approval rating is the second highest of any president since 1969.

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Glenn Beck and the rise of Fox News' militia media

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Eric Boehlert - Apr. 07 (News Report) - Beck's sure "[d]epression and revolution" are what await America under Obama, and fears moving "towards a totalitarian state." The country today sometimes reminds Beck of "the early days of Adolf Hitler." Beck thinks that Obama, who has "surrounded himself by Marxists his whole life," is now "addicting this country to heroin -- the heroin that is government slavery."

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Echo chamber: Bloomberg "commentary" health IT falsehood goes from Limbaugh to WSJ's Moore and Fox, back to Limbaugh

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - By Eric Boehlert, Jamison Foser - Feb. 10 (News Analysis) - Summary: The Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore and Fox News anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly promoted the falsehood -- which first appeared in a Bloomberg "commentary" by Betsy McCaughey and was subsequently promoted by Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge -- that the economic recovery bill includes a provision that would, in Moore's words, "hav[e] the government essentially dictate treatments." Limbaugh later took credit for spreading this story.

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Detroit's $70-an-hour autoworker

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - By Eric Boehlert - Nov. 27 (Opinion) - Question: Is the press just being sloppy on this issue of supposedly pampered autoworkers, or are there other elements in play? Because honestly, I've had trouble escaping the not-very-subtle elitist, get-a-load-of-this tone that has run through the media's misinformation on the topic; i.e., "These autoworkers get paid that?!"

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It's not just Limbaugh and Hannity

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - Nov. 06 (News Analysis) - Beyond the echelon of widely known conservative radio hosts with national audiences lies a vast network of lesser-known syndicated and regional radio hosts who have become key components of an echo chamber for conservative talking points and falsehoods. Like their better-known counterparts, these syndicated and regional radio hosts have played active roles this election season in promoting falsehoods and smears in an all-out effort to foment hate and distrust among their listeners for President-elect Barack Obama. While the hosts vary in the degree of vitriol they spew and in their ratio of rebuttable falsehoods to unbridled smears, Media Matters for America and Colorado Media Matters have identified common themes that many, if not all, have promoted over the past year.

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Media continue to uncritically report McCain campaign attacks on their coverage

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - Nov. 05 (News Analysis) - A Media Matters review of the media's coverage of two stories negatively affecting or reflecting on Sen. Barack Obama -- his ties to Bill Ayers and Antoin Rezko -- and two stories negatively affecting or reflecting on Sen. John McCain -- his reported facilitation of land deals that benefited donors and his association with G. Gordon Liddy -- found that, while the five major newspapers frequently mentioned Obama's ties to Ayers and Rezko throughout the 2008 election cycle, they rarely mentioned McCain's reported facilitation of land deals that benefited donors, and they almost completely ignored McCain's association with Liddy.

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Conservative media figures allege Obama's Hawaii trip is about discredited birth-certificate rumors, not his ailing grandmother

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 24 (News Analysis) - Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Jerome Corsi suggested or asserted that the true purpose of Sen. Barack Obama's current trip to Hawaii is not to visit his ailing grandmother, as Obama claims, but rather to address rumors -- widely debunked -- that Obama has failed to produce a valid U.S. birth certificate. However, in addition to FactCheck.org and a Hawaiian Health Department official, even Corsi's employer, the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, has reportedly determined that the birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign is authentic.

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KSFO's Rodgers falsely claimed Obama "admits in one of his own books" that he would "stand with the Muslims" against "the Western world"

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 22 (News Analysis) - KSFO's Lee Rodgers falsely claimed Sen. Barack Obama "admits in one of his own books" that "in case of a confrontation between the Western world and the Islamic world, he will stand with the Muslims." Rodgers' assertion recalls a similar allegation in a chain email that has been previously debunked. As FactCheck.org documented, while discussing "my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans" in The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote: "[T]hey need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

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On MSNBC, Feehery claimed attacks on Palin are "kind of attacking motherhood and apple pie and everything good about America"

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - On the September 11 edition of MSNBC Live, Hill contributor and Republican strategist John Feehery claimed that "when the Obama campaign and when the left bloggers attack [Gov.] Sarah Palin, it's kind of attacking motherhood and apple pie and everything good about America." Feehery also asserted that Palin "represents everyday America, normal America."

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Media continue to repeat plagiarism accusation without noting that Biden had previously credited Kinnock

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Aug. 24 (News Analysis) - Media outlets continue to report that Sen. Joe Biden was accused in 1987 of plagiarizing then-British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock without noting that while Biden did paraphrase from a Kinnock speech without attribution on at least two occasions in August 1987, he had reportedly credited Kinnock when previously using the same language.

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Numerous media outlets reported McCain's attack on Obama over public financing without noting McCain's loan

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By L.K.A., M.G. - Jun. 21 (News Analysis) - Numerous media outlets have reported all or part of Sen. John McCain's statement rebuking Sen. Barack Obama for his decision to forgo public financing in the general election without mentioning that during the primary, McCain signed a loan that could have forced him to remain in the race -- even if he had no chance of winning -- in order to be eligible for public matching funds to repay the loan.

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LA Times ignored McCains alleged role in Keating Five scandal

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Eric H. Hananoki - May. 30 (News Analysis) - In an article about Sen. John McCain's early political career, the Los Angeles Times' Richard A. Serrano described Charles H. Keating Jr. as "[a]nother influential friend" who "raised more than $100,000 for McCain." Serrano noted that Keating eventually went to prison for his role in a savings and loan scandal, but did not mention McCain's own alleged involvement in the scandal, or that Keating's relationship to McCain reportedly extended beyond simply raising money for his congressional campaigns.

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The Press Is Only Too Happy to Burnish McCain's Reputation

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Eric Boehlert - May. 14 (News Analysis) - Campaign aides for Sen. John McCain want very much to sell the American public on the "McCain brand" and to pitch the Republican candidate as a sort of stand-alone, untarnished political entity, according to a recent Washington Post article.

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The media render the RNC obsolete

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Jamison Foser - Apr. 28 (News Analysis) - McCain has reached the primary spending caps and may be breaking the law with each additional dollar he spends. (McCain's campaign asserts that he is not breaking the law because he opted out of the public finance system after first opting in. Federal Election Commission chairman David Mason disagrees.) But that's where the similarities end. Things are a little easier if your name is John McCain -- after all, who needs the RNC when you have MSNBC?

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Bloggers go to bat for Obama

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - Mar. 05 (Opinion) - After AP reporter Nedra Pickler wrote a news story highlighting how some fringe Republican operatives were raising questions about Sen. Barack Obama's patriotism, angry readers dispatched nearly 15,000 electronic letters protesting the piece.

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Cafferty noted Clinton has yet to release tax returns, but did not mention McCain's failure to do so

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - By No author listed - Feb. 29 (News Analysis) - In reports on the fact that Sen. Hillary Clinton has yet to release her tax returns and White House records, the Associated Press and CNN's Jack Cafferty did not mention that Sen. John McCain has yet to release his filings and has reportedly made no pledge to do so.

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Altercation

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Matters - By Eric Alterman - Feb. 12 (Special Report) - It has long been a truism of this administration that it corrupts everything it touches -- that anyone who associates themselves with it for an extended period of time sees his or her reputation stained beyond repair. Of course, that's usually the least of anyone's problems when it comes to things like lost, unnecessary wars, the torture of innocent people, the bankrupting of the federal treasury, the destruction of the environment, etc., etc.

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Fox News is in for a very rough 2008

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:30:01 -0800

Media Matters - By Eric Boehlert - Jan. 30 (Opinion) - ...when the GOP catches a cold, everybody at Fox News gets sick.

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Debate moderators overlook key questions

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:13:42 -0800

Media Matters - By Jamison Foser - Nov. 18 (News Analysis) - Through 17 debates this year, roughly 1,500 questions have been asked of the two parties' presidential candidates. But only a small handful of questions have touched on the candidates' views on executive power, the Constitution, torture, wiretapping, or other civil liberties concerns.

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