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. Media still bored by Obama press conferences Following President Obama's April 29 press conference, media figures on all three major cable news channels and elsewhere asserted that the press conference was "boring." Several commentators had similarly concluded that Obama's March 24 press conference was insufficiently entertaining, echoing Matt Drudge. Read More Rove pushes "extreme" distortion of Obama health care remark In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove distorted a statement by President Obama to falsely suggest Obama is now considering "a universal health care system like the European countries." Read More Does Dobbs think Dr. Gupta and others at CNN are "out of their cotton pickin' minds"? Noting that some people have criticized the use of the terms "swine flu" and "Mexican flu," Lou Dobbs said that the "idiots referring to it now as 'H1N1 virus' " are "out of their cotton pickin' minds." But Dr. Sanjay Gupta, among others at CNN, has used the term "H1N1," which Gupta said is "probably going to become the more appropriate nomenclature" for the virus. Read More NBC/WSJ poll question advanced false claim about proposed labor law An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll question advanced the false claim that a secret-ballot election is currently required before workers can form a union. In fact, under current law, a secret-ballot election is required only when an employer demands it; an employer can recognize a union if it is supported by a majority of workers. Read More Time has Beck praising Limbaugh's "honesty" in Time 100 profile In a Time magazine profile, Glenn Beck writes that Rush Limbaugh's "consistency, insight and honesty have earned him a level of trust with his listeners that politicians can only dream of." But Media Matters has documented many examples of falsehoods, misleading commentary, and smears by Limbaugh. Read More Media infected with conservatives' "socialized medicine" myth In recent days, numerous media figures have falsely characterized President Obama's health care proposal as "socialized medicine," a "single-payer" health care system, a "single-payer government-run system," or "nationalized health care" like the British or Canadian models. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.