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• In LA video, O'Keefe and Giles expose their own dishonesty

  In making public a video he withheld for more than two months, right-wing activist James O'Keefe finally acknowledged that a Los Angeles ACORN employee "would not assist us obtain a house for our illegal activities" -- an admission that directly contradicts claims by his colleague Hannah Giles that no ACORN [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 6:18pm EST

• Right-wing media put Obama on the couch for inch-deep analysis

  Right-wing media figures, including Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and The Washington Times' Wesley Pruden, have in recent days attacked President Obama while discussing his mental state. While claiming, "I'm not asking you to psychoanalyze the president," Beck asked psychiatrist and Fox News contributor Keith Ablow, "Are we crazy for saying [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:45pm EST

• Morning Joe repeatedly airs Lieberman's false claim on public option

  On November 20, MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough uncritically repeated Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) claim that "if you look at the campaign last year, the presidential, you can't find a mention of public option. It was added after the election as a part of what we normally consider [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:19pm EST

• Rove memory loss: Op-ed accuses Obama of "unusual" use of Friday news dumps

  In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Bush official Karl Rove criticized the "degree" to which the Obama administration has released "news on contentious issues late on Friday," adding that "such tactics ... can look disingenuous if they undercut public debate on substantive policy changes"; later on Fox & Friends, [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:44pm EST

• Quick Fact: Palin links nonbinding mammogram guidelines to "death panels"

  On Laura Ingraham's radio show, Sarah Palin linked a task force's recent recommendations on breast cancer screenings to the widely debunked smear -- propagated by Palin -- that health care reform will include "death panels." Palin fearmongered about death panels despite the fact that the recommendations are not legally binding [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:29pm EST

• Quick Fact: Gateway Pundit claims Senate will vote on health care reform bill after "10 Hours" of debate

  Trumpeting a Drudge Report headline, Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft claimed that Senate Democrats "will only deliberate 10 hourson [sic] SATURDAY before they vote to nationalize one-sixth of the US economy." In fact, the Senate vote scheduled for Saturday is a vote on a cloture motion -- which would allow the [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:22pm EST

• Fox News' Siegel fearmongers: nonbinding, nongov. cancer screening recs are gov. rationing

  Fox News' Dr. Marc Siegel fearmongered that recent recommendations that younger women get fewer cervical cancer screenings represented a precursor of government rationing under health care reform. In fact, the guidelines, issued by a nongovernment medical organization, are the result of a medical review process reportedly initiated prior to the [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:43pm EST

• Fox News' Siegel falsely claims insurers would be required to deny preventive care under health care reform

  In a November 19 New York Post column, Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel cited task force recommendations against regular mammograms for some women to fearmonger that "under ObamaCare, guidelines will quickly become mandates" and that "[a]ll the major 'reform' bills create lots of new panels and other bureaucrats empowered [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:36pm EST

• Ignoring key CBO findings, Fox News' Cameron misleads on cost of Senate health bill

  In a report on the Senate health care reform bill for Fox News' Special Report, chief political correspondent Carl Cameron cited the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to claim that the Senate health care bill would increase federal health care spending over 10 years and that, in the decade after 2014, [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:21pm EST

• Quick Fact: Beck advanced dubious claim that "[n]owhere in the Constitution can you find" authority for health reform legislation

  During his Fox News show, Glenn Beck claimed that "[n]owhere in the Constitution can you find any of this" while he pointed to two stacks of paper representing the Senate and House health care bills. Contrary to Beck's suggestion that Congress does not have the authority to enact health care reform [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:32am EST

• Quick Fact: Beck falsely claims that under the Senate health care bill, "You don't get a single benefit until 2014"

  During his November 19 Fox News program, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that under the Senate health care bill, "All of the benefits of this bill don't kick in until when? You don't get a single benefit until 2014." He later added: "[G]uess what, you're not going to get jack for [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:33pm EST

• Conservative media frequently accuse progressives of "raping" Americans

  Conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage frequently employ rape metaphors when discussing progressives or progressive policies. For example, Beck said that New Yorkers are "being raped by [their] government," while Limbaugh, during a discussion of health care, told his listeners: "Get ready to get gang-raped [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:42pm EST

• Fox News' year in apologies: fake videos, false info, cutting and pasting from GOP

  On November 19, co-host Jane Skinner apologized for Happening Now "mistakenly" airing a fake video of Sarah Palin's book tour "crowds." This was not the first time Fox News has apologized for airing fake videos and false information.

  Fox News' year in apologies

  Fox News presents year-old Palin footage as new Palin [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:54pm EST

• Quick Fact: Limbaugh falsely claims undocumented immigrants "are covered" under House health care bill

  On his November 19 radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants "are covered" under the recently passed House health care bill. In fact, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) stipulates that those "not lawfully present" may not receive subsidies to purchase insurance.

  From the November 19 [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:41pm EST

• Quick Fact: Dr. Limbaugh promotes false notion that abortion is linked to breast cancer

  On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh told a caller that "there are studies that say abortions increase the chances of breast cancer." In fact, the American Cancer Society says that "research studies have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and breast cancer," and the National Cancer Institute states that [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:56pm EST

• WSJ falsely claimed task force recommended cutting off mammograms for grandma

  In a November 19 editorial, The Wall Street Journal falsely claimed that recent task force recommendations for breast cancer screenings advises doctors to "cut off all screening in woman over 75" in order to fearmonger that the recommendations are a form of government rationing of care to the elderly -- [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:25pm EST

• Quick Fact: Media repeat conservative claim that nonbiding health guidelines foreshadow rationing

  In recent days, several media outlets have repeated the conservative claim that a task force recommending that fewer women younger than 50 receive regular mammograms is a precursor to government rationing under health care reform. In fact, the recommendations are not legally binding on health care providers or insurers.

  Fox News, [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:34pm EST

• Fox & Friends repeatedly equates Senate bill's deficit reduction with "taxes"

  During its November 19 broadcast, Fox & Friends described the amount by which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the Senate's health care bill would reduce the federal deficit as a tax, and co-host Gretchen Carlson later suggested that the projected $127 billion net reduction in the 10-year deficit would [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:22pm EST

• Fox & Friends misleadingly inflates cost of Senate bill by adding doctor pay fix

  Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson misleadingly inflated the cost of the Senate health care reform bill by adding the cost of a separate measure repealing scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates the cost of the doctor pay fix [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:09pm EST

• Quick Fact: Scarborough baselessly claims criminal terror trials "extraordinarily unpopular in New York"

  On the November 19 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough baselessly claimed that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to hold criminal trials for Guantánamo Bay detainees in New York's Southern District "is extraordinarily unpopular in New York."

  From the November 19 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

  SCARBOROUGH: Well, let me [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:40pm EST

• Jamison Foser: Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular

  If you've turned on a television this week, opened a newspaper, or logged on to a computer, you're probably aware of the Most Important News Story Of The Year (MINSOTY): Sarah Palin, or someone in her employ, has written a book.

  Given Palin's inability, during an interview with CBS' Katie Couric, [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:21pm EST

• Quick Fact: Doocy advances misleading claim that "an enemy combatant" has "never" been "tried in a civil court"

  On the November 19 Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy advanced the misleading claim that there has "never" been "an enemy combatant" who "was tried in a civil court." In fact, Jose Padilla was a U.S. citizen who was held as an enemy combatant for three years before being tried [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:30am EST

• Quick Fact: Doocy claimed Senate bill adds tax that "you" pay "every time you get your paycheck"

  Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy stated of the Senate health care reform bill released on November 18, "they're gonna add payroll taxes on your Medicare that you pay for every time you get your paycheck."

  From the November 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

  DOOCY: Sure, people are going [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:52am EST

• Ignoring several prior Hardball guests, Matthews let Stupak falsely call his amendment consistent with "current law"

  Chris Matthews allowed Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) to repeatedly falsely claim that his amendment to the House health care reform bill is consistent with "current law" with regard to abortion coverage and simply extends the Hyde Amendment's prohibition on government money from being used to pay for most abortions. In [...]

  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:00am EST

• Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity link nonbinding mammogram guidelines to "death panels"

  Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity have linked a task force's recommendation that fewer women younger than 50 receive regular mammograms to the widely debunked smear that Democratic health reform bills include "death panels." Right-wing media figures have repeatedly raised the specter of these purported panels in their discussions [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:09pm EST

• Quick Fact: Beck falsely claims Holdren supported "force[d] abortions"

  Glenn Beck again falsely claimed that White House science and technology adviser John Holdren proposed "steriliz[ing] the drinking water to stop overpopulation" and "forc[ing] abortions so we don't have too many kids."

  From the November 18 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck:

  BECK: Does this sound familiar? It should. One of [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:20pm EST

• NBC and ABC cite conservative criticism of criminal terror trials but ignore conservative endorsements

  Following Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to hold criminal trials for five Guantánamo detainees, nightly news broadcasts on NBC and ABC have reported on conservative criticism of the move but ignored the endorsement of numerous conservative scholars and officials, including Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, American Conservative Union [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 5:12pm EST

• MSNBC graphic misleads on senators' support for KSM trial

  MSNBC's Morning Meeting ran the misleading on-screen graphic "Holder Faces Senators Skeptical of 9/11 Trials" while showing Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) questioning Attorney General Eric Holder. In fact, Leahy and several other senators on the committee have voiced support for bringing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other 9-11 [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 3:59pm EST

• Media conservatives fearmonger that nonbinding health guidelines foreshadow government rationing

  Responding to a task force recommending that fewer women younger than 50 receive regular mammograms, media conservatives have relentlessly fearmongered that the recommendations represent a precursor to government rationing under health care reform, with Rush Limbaugh claiming, "You might even say that we've got death panels going on here." But [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 3:31pm EST

• Hannity promotes his "Conservative Victory 2010" voting guide

  Sean Hannity has repeatedly promoted "Conservative Victory 2010" -- a map on his website that is part of his project to "get people to do what I think the Republican Party should be doing, which is, you know, going back to the very simple, basic promises of conservatism." Hannity has [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 3:25pm EST

• Quick Fact: Fox Nation asks, "Did Obama Tell Chinese We're Chauvinists?"

  Linking to a Rush Limbaugh radio transcript titled, "As American Men Chickify, Obama Tells Chinese We're Chauvinists," the Fox Nation posted the headline "Did Obama Tell Chinese We're Chauvinists?"

  From The Fox Nation accessed on November 18:

  

  Clicking the headline took readers to a page that provided a spliced quote [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:32pm EST

• Hannity falsely claims that tax credit correction amounts to "tax hikes"

  Discussing a report by the Treasury inspector general finding that millions of Americans may have received more money from the Making Work Pay tax credit than they were entitled to and that they will have to repay the excess on their 2009 taxes, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that the Obama [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:59pm EST

• Quick Fact: Wash. Times editorial falsely claimed Obama "instructed" FBI to begin Mirandizing suspected terrorists captured overseas

  In a November 18 editorial, The Washington Times falsely claimed that in May 2009, the Obama administration "instructed the FBI to begin giving Miranda warnings to terrorists captured overseas."

  From the November 18 Washington Times editorial:

  The defense can argue that the entire process leading up to the trial has been illegal and everything [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:47am EST

• On Limbaugh's show, Palin fearmongered about "jail time as punishment" in Senate health care bill

  On Rush Limbaugh's radio program, Sarah Palin baselessly claimed, "We don't know if those who choose not to purchase this government-mandated level of coverage will face jail time as punishment," advancing the false conservative talking point that under health care reform, the uninsured will face jail time. In fact, neither [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:25am EST

• Fox News falsely claimed EPA officials "questioned the science behind global warming policy"

  Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota falsely claimed that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lawyers Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel "questioned the science behind global warming policy" in a YouTube video that is critical of cap-and-trade proposals, and Fox News reporter William La Jeunesse suggested that the EPA's demand that the lawyers [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:32am EST

• Quick Fact: Carlson advanced baseless claim that health care reform will "add" to "the debt"

  On the November 18th Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson advanced the baseless claim that health care reform "is going to add a lot of money to the debt."

  From the November 18 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

  CARLSON: Yeah but, in both Virginia and New Jersey, both of those [...]

  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:19am EST

• BREAKING! Beck unearths video of SEIU's Stern endorsing SEIU's well-publicized goals

  On his Fox News show, Glenn Beck purported to expose a video of SEIU president Andy Stern pledging "in Puerto Rico" to achieve various public policy initiatives. However, each of the pledges Stern made -- to achieve universal health care, to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, "to win quality [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 11:52pm EST

• Book review: Palin goes rogue on the facts

  By Max Blumenthal

  In August 2008, when then-senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the media had held her under a "sharper microscope" because she was a woman, Sarah Palin rose to condemn her, accusing Clinton of a "perceived whine" that would harm other female political candidates. "I mean, work [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:54pm EST

• Quick Fact: On Limbaugh , Palin repeats dubious claim that Reagan faced worse recession than current one

  On Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio show, Sarah Palin claimed that former President Reagan "faced a tougher recession than what we're facing today," echoing a similar assertion made in her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life. In fact, as the Associated Press noted in addressing her book, "Economists overwhelmingly say [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 3:59pm EST

• Quick Fact: Limbaugh falsely claims Obama "does not want Congress" to investigate Ft. Hood shootings

  Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that President Obama "does not want Congress to conduct any kind of investigation" into the Fort Hood shooting.
  

  From the November 17 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

  LIMBAUGH: Major Nidal Malik Hasan's military superiors repeatedly ignored or rebuffed his efforts to open [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 2:43pm EST

• Beck uses blatant distortions to smear SEIU as violent organization of "thugs"

  During the November 16 edition of his Fox News program, Glenn Beck repeatedly launched false, misleading, or unfounded attacks against the Service Employees International Union, its president Andy Stern, and President Obama to claim that SEIU members are "thugs" who "beat down" opponents and command elected officials.

  Beck falsely attributes quote [...]
  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 12:57pm EST

• What Grinch? Fox's Hemmer and Camerota mislead on "War on Christmas" story

  Fox News' America's Newsroom aired a segment hyping a story on an elementary school in Boston that had prohibited Christmas-themed gifts from being sold in the school's holiday gift shop, which co-host Bill Hemmer suggested is evidence of "the War on Christmas ... raging again." However, the school's ban reportedly [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 12:51pm EST

• Quick Fact: Doocy suggests that Stupak amendment would simply prohibit federal funds from being used for abortions

  In an interview with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) during the November 17 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy falsely suggested that Stupak's amendment to the House health care bill would simply "mak[e] it very clear that federal money will not be used to end a life."

  From the November 17 [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 12:16pm EST

• Eric Boehlert: Why is Rupert Murdoch so clueless about Fox News?

  Did you know that Sean Hannity is "an academic"? That Obama administration officials love Fox News' White House reporters? That CNN refuses to have Republicans on its program? That Glenn Beck is "purely Libertarian"? Or that there's no bias -- none -- in Fox's presentation of the news?

  At least [...]

  
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 5:57am EST

• Quick Fact: Morris again falsely claimed Obama said he's "against a congressional investigation" into Fort Hood

  On Hannity, Dick Morris again falsely claimed that President Obama said "he's against a congressional investigation of Fort Hood because he doesn't want to kindle political theater."

  From the November 16 edition of Hannity:

  MORRIS: Obama on the one hand says he's against a congressional investigation of Fort Hood because he doesn't [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 10:36pm EST

• Major retailers reportedly selling Palin's Going Rogue below cost

  Sarah Palin's memoir Going Rogue: An American Life has garnered attention in part because of the number of copies sold before publication. But the book has been offered at below-cost prices from major online retailers, and Newsmax has used the book as a loss leader to promote its magazine, potentially [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 10:21pm EST

• Quick Fact: In latest Beck conspiracy, SEIU's Stern tied to alleged beating

  In his latest conspiracy theory, Glenn Beck tied SEIU's Andy Stern to the alleged beating of SEIU critic Ken Hamidi.

  From the November 16 edition of Glenn Beck:

  BECK: It seems like this is what SEIU does. It's what they did to a TV reporter [Ken Hamidi] in California earlier this month. They left [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 8:27pm EST

• Quick Fact: Beck smears SEIU's Stern as a communist because he said "workers of the world, unite"

  Glenn Beck asked, "What are the goals of Andy Stern and SEIU?" then aired a clip of Stern stating on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal, "workers of the world, unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work." Beck then commented that [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 6:43pm EST

• Fox, MSNBC reports of "local opposition" to housing Guantánamo detainees omit reports of local support

  Following the announcement by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that the Obama administration is considering housing Guantánamo detainees in a largely vacant prison in Thomson, Illinois, Fox News' Catherine Herridge reported that that "we're seeing some signs of local opposition" among the residents, and MSNBC's Monica [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 5:29pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin, without elaboration, calls Bridge to Nowhere a "lie"

  On Page 237 of her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, Sarah Palin writes that shortly after she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential race, the media began reporting "one lie after another -- from rape kits to Bridges to Nowhere. All easy enough [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 4:26pm EST

• Quick Fact: On Oprah , Palin repeats falsehood that media didn't criticize "other candidates" over fashion

  During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Palin trumpeted the false claim from her memoir, Going Rogue, that criticism over reports that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 to clothe and accessorize Palin and her family represented a "double standard," because "it wasn't a controversy with other candidates." In fact, [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 2:36pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin offers inaccurate warnings about Democratic proposals' effects on small businesses

  In her memoir, Sarah Palin offers numerous falsehoods in writing that she warned her daughter Bristol not to open her own small business because the "Democrat-led Congress" would purportedly dictate "how you should invest your money, the color of your roof, your source of energy generation, and what kind of [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 2:20pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin promotes discredited notion that affordable-housing initiatives "triggered" the "collapse of our financial markets"

  In her memoir, Sarah Palin claimed that the "mortgage crisis that triggered the collapse of our financial markets was rooted in a well-meaning but wrongheaded desire to increase home ownership among people who could not yet afford to own a home" and that "[g]overnment cannot force financial institutions to give [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 12:46pm EST

• Echoing a right-wing blog, Doocy repeatedly claimed Obama's bow was unprecedented

  In reporting on the manner in which President Obama greeted Japanese Emperor Akihito, Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy repeatedly claimed that "dating back to the very founding of this Republic, American leaders do not bow to leaders of other countries." In fact, Obama's greeting was far from unprecedented, as [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 11:04am EST

• Morris falsely claimed Obama said he "opposes a congressional investigation" into Fort Hood

  Dick Morris and Eileen McGann falsely claimed in the New York Post that President Obama said "he opposes a congressional investigation into the Fort Hood massacre" and that Obama "is doing his best to stop Congress from finding out why these warnings went unheeded." In fact, in his November 14 [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 10:49am EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin absurdly claims McCain campaign "did not elaborate" on Obama's purported "relationship with ACORN"

  In her memoir, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin claims that the McCain campaign "did not elaborate on" what she describes as then-Senator Obama's "close relationship with ACORN, the voter-fraud specialists." In fact, McCain, Palin, and various McCain spokespeople all advanced ridiculous conspiracy theories about Obama and ACORN, and McCain campaign manger [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 9:23am EST

• Quick Fact: Scarborough falsely claimed trials of foreign terror suspects through U.S. judiciary are "unprecedented"

  MSNBC host Joe Scarborough falsely claimed that it is "unprecedented" to try foreign terror suspects through the United States' judicial system, stating, "It's unprecedented to afford constitutional rights to, basically, prisoners of war." In fact, during the Bush and Clinton administrations numerous foreign terrorists have been tried and imprisoned by [...]

  
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 8:04am EST

• Rogue Facts: Media Matters ' ongoing list of falsehoods in Palin's memoir

  Media Matters for America has documented numerous falsehoods in Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life. Below is a list of what we've found so far.

  1. Palin falsely suggests poor will be "hit hardest" by cap and trade

  Palin: Obama "admitted" cap and trade will cause "electricity bills to 'skyrocket' [...]

  
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 5:14pm EST

• Before Rogue : Sarah Palin's Top 10 past falsehoods

  In anticipation of the release of Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue, Media Matters for America has compiled a list of Palin's Top 10 falsehoods from before the book was published.

  Falsehood 1: Democratic health reform bills include "death panel[s]"

  CLAIM: Democratic health care reform proposals include a "death panel" which would determine whether people [...]

  
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 4:29pm EST

• Sarah Palin: If you fact-check my book, then the terrorists have already won

  In a note she posted to her Facebook page today, Sarah Palin mocked the AP's use of 11 fact-checkers of her not-yet-released book, Going Rogue, writing: "We've heard 11 writers are engaged in this opposition research, er, "fact checking" research!" Hmm, do I hear echoes of Mark Steyn [...]

  
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 3:48pm EST

• Despite finding the time to discuss "bow-gate," Fox News Sunday ignored reports of alleged Blackwater bribes

  Despite finding the time to discuss the manner in which President Obama greeted the emperor of Japan on the November 15 broadcast of Fox News Sunday, there was no time during the program devoted to recent reports that officials at Xe Services -- formerly Blackwater Worldwide -- had allegedly authorized [...]

  
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 3:27pm EST

• In book full of complaints, Palin writes: "I don't like to hear people complain"

  In her forthcoming memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin writes, "I don't like to hear people complain," before stating one "complaint for the record" about the national media. However, Palin's professed distaste for "complaints" is undercut by the numerous complaints that fill the pages of [...]

  
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 2:25pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin still falsely claiming stimulus money for energy effiency she vetoed required tougher building codes

  In her memoir, Sarah Palin claims that she vetoed an "earmark for energy conservation" Alaska could have received under the stimulus package because "acceptance of the funds required the adoption and enforcement of energy building codes." When Palin previously made a similar claim, PolitiFact.com determined that she was "wrong" because [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 7:54pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin suggests "no other candidate" subjected to scrutiny "about their hair, makeup, or clothes"

  Sarah Palin writes in her memoir that after it was reported that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 "to clothe and accessorize" Palin and her family, "many wondered at the same time why no other candidates or their spouses were being asked a thing about their hair, makeup, or clothes." [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 7:30pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin misleads on aerial hunting

  In her memoir, Sarah Palin falsely suggests that Alaskans do not engage in the aerial hunting of wolves. In fact, such hunting takes place in Alaska under a program that Palin herself has supported.

  Palin: Radio host "suggested we get together and hunt from helicopters, which Alaska hunters don't do"

  On Page [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 7:13pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin memoir stands by falsehood that Obama opposed "protect[ing] babies born alive after botched abortions"

  In her memoir, while discussing abortion, Sarah Palin claims that the "real extremism" on abortion comes from people "like Barack Obama, who opposed laws that would protect babies born alive after botched abortions" -- a reference to Obama's opposition to legislation that would have amended the Illinois Abortion Law of [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 5:35pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin falsely suggests poor "hit hardest" by cap-and-trade

  In her memoir, Sarah Palin falsely suggests that "those hit hardest [by cap-and-trade] will be those who are already struggling to make ends meet" and that President Obama "has already admitted that the policy he seeks will cause our electricity bills to 'skyrocket.' " However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:39pm EST

• Rogue Fact: In memoir, Palin still distorting NY Times article to defend "palling around with terrorists" claim

  In her memoir, Sarah Palin claims that she stated during a speech that then-Sen. Barack Obama had been "palling around with terrorists" in response to "the breaking news about the friendship between the unrepentant domestic terrorist [Bill Ayers] and the Democrat candidate for president [Obama]." In fact, the New York [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:17pm EST

• Rogue Fact: Palin attacks "Democrat lawmaker" who's actually a Republican

  In her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, Sarah Palin mocks the "political buckshot" her "critics fired" at her, pointing to a "Democrat lawmaker" in Alaska who "complained that I wasn't as 'sparky' " after the 2008 election. Palin appeared to be referring to a January 31 Associated Press article [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 4:10pm EST

• Van Susteren hypes Palin memoir, but fails to disclose her husband advised Palin after 2008 campaign

  Fox News host Greta Van Susteren devoted the opening segment of her prime-time program to covering Sarah Palin's yet-to-be released memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life -- about which she claimed "the entire country is buzzing" -- including making a pitch for Palin to appear on her program. But at [...]

  
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 3:24pm EST

• Cavuto let Giuliani attack KSM's civilian trial after lauding Moussaoui's

  Fox News' Neil Cavuto allowed Rudy Giuliani to criticize the Obama administration's decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) in the U.S. criminal justice system in New York City as a "terrible, terrible mistake" because KSM "should be prosecuted in a military tribunal." Cavuto did not ask Giuliani to reconcile [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 11:02pm EST

• Quick Fact: Beck still falsely claiming you "go to jail" for not having health insurance under bill

  Glenn Beck is still falsely claiming that Americans face jail time as a penalty for failure to buy insurance under the House health care bill.

  From the provides that an individual must be "covered by acceptable coverage at all times." "Acceptable coverage" includes "qualified health benefits plan coverage," "grandfathered health insurance coverage," "Medicare," "Medicaid," coverage [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 10:33pm EST

• Limbaugh, Fox News at odds over whether Palin memoir is focused on policy

  On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Experience, is "one of the most substantive policy books I've read." By contrast, later that night, Fox News' Carl Cameron stated that the book "largely steers clear of politics and policy" and that the chapter [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:37pm EST

• Media Matters: Dobbs, dropped

  On July 15, Lou Dobbs introduced a story on his CNN news program by saying that "new questions are raised about the president's eligibility to be president." Unbeknownst to the long-time cable news veteran, the moment he uttered those words, he embarked upon a steep downward trajectory that, just a [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:25pm EST

• Quick Fact: Hannity used insufficient H1N1 vaccine supply - which he blamed on gov't - to attack health reform

  Sean Hannity blamed the H1N1 vaccine shortage on the government and suggested that the shortage is indicative of the government's ability to reform health care.

  From the November 11 edition of Hannity:

  HANNITY: There are some parents that don't want to vaccinate their kids. Which by the way, Deirdre Imus, if you're watching, fine, [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:21pm EST

• Greg Lewis: The Friday Rush: Following Limbaugh on his journey to the edge

  It's like Rush Limbaugh is actively trying to push himself to the margins of the country's political discourse. There's simply no better explanation than when he said this:

  LIMBAUGH: But if we're going to ask, "Why did [Hasan] do it?" knowing full well that he's in the same mosque in [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:15pm EST

• Conservative media attacks of detainee trials undermined by support from ret. military brass, conservative scholars, and statesmen

  Following Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to hold criminal trials for five Guantánamo detainees, conservative media figures have criticized the decision as a "disaster," "impossible to put into perspective" and -- in the words of Rush Limbaugh -- done only to "satisfy the rabid radical far left that hates this [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 6:09pm EST

• Gingrich's attack on the "Obama administration's job-killing policies" falls flat

  In a Washington Examiner column, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) claimed that President Obama and Congress "don't seem to realize that adopting bad policies kills jobs" and that "[w]e now have proof that the Obama administration's job-killing policies are hurting America." But to support his assertions, Gingrich [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 1:54pm EST

• Right-wing blogs promote global warming skeptic who falsely claims volcanoes to blame for CO2 in the atmosphere

  Right-wing blogs the Drudge Report and BigGovernment.com are promoting a London Telegraph article on an Australian scientist's arguments that carbon dioxide emissions are "not causing" the Earth to warm, that global warming is natural, and that it is not caused by human emissions. However, one of geologist Ian Plimer's central [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:46pm EST

• Gaffney's fearmongering about trying KSM in U.S. undermined by past success in prosecuting terrorists

  Responding to reports that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) and four others accused of being involved in the 9-11 attacks are going to be tried in New York City, Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney stated during Fox & Friends that Mohammed will "be a rock star in the prison system" who [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:27pm EST

• Palin co-author Lynn Vincent's inflammatory record

  On May 21, HarperCollins announced that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had chosen World magazine features editor Lynn Vincent to co-author Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life. Palin's choice of Vincent, however, is not without controversy, as Vincent -- both in her writing for World and her other books [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:04pm EST

• Quick Fact: WSJ op-ed advances tired and discredited claim that affordable housing caused the housing crisis

  A November 13 Wall Street Journal op-ed claimed that loans made "under the pressure of" the Community Reinvestment Act helped to "fuel the greatest housing bubble our nation has ever seen." The claim that affordable housing initiatives were responsible for the housing crisis is a widely discredited myth.

  From Edward Pinto's [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 10:18am EST

• Myths and falsehoods about health care reform, continued

  As Congress continues to debate health care reform legislation, Media Matters for America presents the latest in a series of reports identifying and debunking myths and falsehoods in the media's coverage of the issue.

  MYTH 1: GOP victories in 2009 gubernatorial elections mean "ObamaCare" is dead

  MYTH 2: Under [...]

  
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:37am EST

• Quick fact: Cupp cites Palin putting AK's jet on eBay as the "practical answers" U.S. needs to implement

  Criticizing President Obama's proposed job summit, right-wing columnist S.E. Cupp stated that "When Alaska was pelted by the economy, Sarah Palin put the plane up on eBay," suggesting that that is the sort of "practical answer" the United States should implement.

  From the November 12 edition of Hannity:

  S.E. CUPP: That's [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 11:44pm EST

• Who will mainstream right-wing attacks with Beck's lieutenant gone from CNN?

  With Lou Dobbs' departure from CNN, Glenn Beck and the right-wing media have lost one of their lieutenants in their campaign to mainstream conservative misinformation. On both his TV and radio show, Dobbs has ceaselessly attacked President Obama, members of his administration, and other progressives, and repeatedly adopted the falsehoods [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 10:35pm EST

• Jamison Foser: How can health care reporting get worse? Add abortion to the mix

  If you want an illustration of how conservative framing dominates media coverage of politics and policy, you need only watch Chris Matthews talk about abortion each night on Hardball. Since early summer, the Hardball host has been hyping anti-abortion complaints about proposed health care reform, even though the proposals would have [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 8:10pm EST

• Quick fact: Fox Nation pushes Limbaugh's false claim that Obama is "purging Republicans from civil service"

  Fox Nation advanced the false claim pushed by RedState.com's Erick Erickson and repeated by Rush Limbaugh that President Obama is, in Fox Nation's words, "Purging Republicans from Civil Service."

  The November 12 Fox Nation post, which links to a HotAirPundit blog post featuring video and transcript of Limbaugh's November 12 [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 7:47pm EST

• Quick fact: Beck's "new little twist" is the same old health care jail time falsehood

  Discussing Democratic health care reform, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that "if you don't play ball with them now, if you don't get into their government health care, there will be jail time."

  From the November 12 broadcast of Fox News' Glenn Beck:

  BECK: But if you don't play by their new rules on [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:09pm EST

• Did you get that memo? Right-wing smear machine falsely claims new Obama administration policy will "purge" Republicans from civil service

  Reading a RedState blog post on his radio show, Rush Limbaugh stated that the "Obama administration intends to purge Republicans from the civil service retroactive to five years ago, starting in the year 2010." In fact, the Office of Personnel Management memo that Limbaugh was referencing would require federal agencies [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 5:57pm EST

• Quick Fact: Rush forwards falsehood that Hasan advised Obama transition

  
  Responding to a caller's claim that alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan helped "shape our foreign policy and our domestic policy," Rush Limbaugh commented: "Especially before Obama was elected, I know."

  From the November 12 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

  LIMBAUGH: Brenda in Upland, California, great [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 5:30pm EST

• After aggressively promoting ACORN videos, Fox News ignores reports of Blackwater bribes

  On the evening of November 11, Fox News personalities did not discuss reports from the previous evening that officials at Xe Services, formerly Blackwater Worldwide, had authorized $1 million in bribery payments to Iraqi officials in the aftermath of a fatal shooting involving Blackwater security guards. By contrast, Fox News [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 4:33pm EST

• Beck, conservative media fearmonger that cap-and-trade would grant president Chavez-like powers

  On his radio show, Glenn Beck claimed that "in the cap-and-trade legislation that is being proposed, the president has new emergency powers" that would allow him to "take over industries" if greenhouse gas levels reach a certain level, echoing other conservative media outlets that have claimed that the legislation requires [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 4:07pm EST

• Right-wing blogs run with reporter's false question on jail time under health bill

  Right-wing websites including the Fox Nation have highlighted a question asked of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a November 9 press conference in Seattle by a local reporter who said, "Do you think it's fair to send people to jail for not buying health insurance?" In fact, the penalty under [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 12:37pm EST

• Will baselessly claimed health care reform plans will increase U.S. "debt and borrowing"

  In his November 12 Washington Post column, George Will asserted that "[g]old increasingly looks to investors to be a more reliable store of value than governments' bonds are, especially U.S. bonds as the U.S. government threatens to pile a mammoth health-care entitlement onto the nation's Ponzi welfare state, increasing the [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 7:56am EST

• Quick fact: Memo to Hannity: Democrats swept Congressional races last week

  Pointing to Republican victories in last week's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, Sean Hannity asked if they are "a preview of sort of what a lot of people expected what happened in '93, '94 to happen here," specifically that "the Republicans can take back the House and Nancy [...]

  
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 12:10am EST

• Quick Fact: Limbaugh claimed "no backlash against Muslims," but hate crimes against them reportedly "soared" after 9-11

  Referring to remarks by Gen. George Casey regarding potential backlash against Muslims in the military in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings, Rush Limbaugh claimed: "There is no backlash against Muslims in America. Zip, zero, nada." Limbaugh's claim that "there is no backlash against Muslims in America" is undermined [...]

  
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 5:44pm EST

• Hannity video switch-up is only the tip of Fox News' video-doctoring iceberg

  On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity misleadingly aired video from the 9-12 March on Washington while discussing Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) much smaller November 5 anti-health care reform rally to claim that "twenty-thousand plus" people showed up to Bachmann's protest. Hannity's video switch-up -- which Jon Stewart highlighted on [...]

  
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 1:19pm EST

• Right-wing media falsely implicate Holder in subpoena of website's visitor lists

  Linking to a CBSNews.com story about a Justice Department subpoena of a news website's visitor lists, the Fox Nation featured the false headline, "Holder subpoenas Web site Visitor Lists," and other conservative media outlets and figures, including the Drudge Report, advanced similar claims that Attorney General Eric Holder was responsible [...]

  
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 12:49pm EST

• Abandoning earlier attacks, Fox now suggests Obama is "delay[ing]" Afghanistan decision to "push through health care reform"

  Introducing a panel discussion about President Obama's consideration of whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, Brian Kilmeade asked if it is "possible the president delayed making a decision in order to push through health care reform." Kilmeade's comments follow earlier Fox News attacks suggesting ulterior motives for Obama's deliberations [...]

  
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 12:43pm EST

• Investor's Business Daily misleads to claim Hamilton is "Another Radical Judge"

  In a November 11 editorial, Investor's Business Daily claimed that Judge David Hamilton, nominee for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a "radical" judge. In addition to invoking Hamilton's views on "empathy" -- a favorite conservative attack -- the editorial misleadingly suggested that Hamilton discriminated against Christianity by banning [...]

  
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 9:29am EST