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Media Matters for America (1 unread)

• Limbaugh distorts apparently stolen emails to falsely claim global warming is "made up"

  Rush Limbaugh -- who had previously condemned the "thugs" who hacked then-Gov. Sarah Palin's email account -- joined right-wing bloggers in touting a series of emails that were apparently stolen from the UK's Climate Research Unit [CRU]. Limbaugh proceeded to distort at least one of the emails in order to [...]

  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:04pm EST

• 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