Media Matters Daily Summary

Here are today's news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or 'read more' to read the entirety of each story. IBD editorial blamed Frank for "nix[ing] reforms" of Fannie and Freddie in '02 and '03 -- when GOP controlled House An Investor's Business Daily editorial stated, "Starting in the early 1990s," Rep. Barney Frank "(and other Democrats) stood athwart efforts by regulators, Congress and the White House to get the runaway housing market under control." It specified that "[i]n 2002, Frank nixed reforms" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that in 2003, "led by Frank, Democrats stood as a bloc against any changes" that President Bush proposed making to Fannie and Freddie. But in 2002 and 2003, Republicans controlled the House and could have passed legislation regarding Fannie and Freddie in the House without the support of Frank or any other Democrats. Read More AP continues to omit that many omnibus bill earmarks -- including one of two specified in latest article -- were sponsored by Republicans An AP article reported that Republicans criticized the omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress for containing "7,991 earmarks" but did not note that roughly 40 percent of those earmarks were reportedly requested by congressional Republicans, or that one of the two specific earmarks mentioned in the article was sponsored by Republicans. Read More NY Times reported GOP senators' "threat" to filibuster judicial nominees, but not their prior claims that tactic violates Constitution A New York Times article reported that President Obama faces a "threat from Senate Republicans, who earlier this month threatened ... to block his judicial nominees by filibuster." But the Times failed to point out that several of the same Senate Republicans who signed onto the letter "threaten[ing] ... to block [Obama's] judicial nominees by filibuster" have previously challenged the constitutionality of filibustering judicial nominees. Read More Fox News hosts tout myth that 60 or more Gitmo detainees are known to have returned to battlefield Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade advanced the myth that 60 or more former Guantánamo Bay detainees are known to have, in Hannity's words, "gone back to the battlefield." However, according to the Pentagon, only 18 former Guantánamo detainees have been "confirmed" to have "return[ed] to the fight," while an additional 43 former detainees are "suspected" of having done so. Even the Pentagon's "confirmed" figure has been questioned by analysts. Read More Hannity misrepresents source of editorial to claim that "liberal media" outlet claimed Obama has "embarrassed America" On his radio show, Sean Hannity asserted that "the solid wall of the liberal media, in terms of support for [President Obama], may be starting to crack" and then read from what he claimed was a San Francisco Chronicle editorial criticizing Obama to support his claim. In fact, the editorial from which Hannity read was not from the Chronicle, but rather The San Francisco Examiner, which endorsed Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. Read More CNN's Blitzer, Keilar don't challenge latest GOP claim that spending bills amount to "$24 billion a day, a billion dollars an hour" On The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer did not challenge a Republican talking point repeated by Rep. Eric Cantor that the cost of the omnibus appropriations bill and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act amounts to $24 billion a day, a billion dollars an hour." That calculation is based on dividing the costs of the two bills over 50 days. But as Time's Michael Scherer noted, "[t]he omnibus is a spending bill to run the government over the course of an entire year. ... The stimulus will be paid out over several years, with most of the money going out the door over the next 18 months." Read More Baier did not report that aircraft requests "from Pelosi's people" included trips with Republicans On Special Report, Bret Baier reported on emails from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office concerning requests for air transportation for congressional delegation trips, citing one email calling a lack of a certain type of plane "totally unacceptable" and saying, "The Speaker will want to know where the planes are." But Baier failed to report that according to ABC's The Note, the email in question "came in reference to planes available for bipartisan trips by congressional delegations -- not the speaker's personal travel" or that Republicans participated in several of the congressional delegations for which Pelosi's office requested transportation. Read More CBS' Couric, Reid report omnibus is "loaded," "filled," and "stuffed" with earmarks, don't note they are less than 2 percent of bill On the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric stated that the omnibus spending bill was "filled with earmarks," and Chip Reid reported that the bill was "loaded with about eighty-five hundred pet projects known as earmarks, inserted by members of Congress without legislative review." But at no point did they note that according to most estimates, earmarks constitute less than 2 percent of the bill's total spending. 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