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. Fox omits Republican role in Sebelius confirmation delay Reporting that "President Obama went golfing and the Department of Health and Human Services is short a secretary, so other U.S. officials took the controls" dealing with the swine flu, FoxNews.com omitted Senate Republicans' role in delaying Kathleen Sebelius' nomination as HHS secretary. Read More Claiming "[e]verybody supported" interrogation methods, Scarborough misrepresents Holder Joe Scarborough misrepresented a 2002 statement by Eric Holder to claim that while some Democrats currently favor criminal investigations for Bush administration officials who authorized harsh interrogation methods, in 2002 "[e]verybody supported" using those methods. Read More AP reported that Gore "bragged" he read energy bill, but he was asked if he had done so The AP asserted that, during a hearing on the energy bill, Al Gore "bragged" when he testified, "I have read all 648 pages of this bill." But the AP did not mention that Gore was responding to a question about whether he had read the bill. Read More On Fox, McInerney criticizes Gates for proposed F-22 replacement without noting ties to aircraft subcontractor Fox News military analyst Tom McInerney criticized the Obama administration's decision to procure only four more F-22 fighters, but at no point was it disclosed during his appearance that McInerney has served as a consultant for Northrop Grumman Corp., a major subcontractor on the F-22. Read More Paranoia pandemic: Conservative media baselessly blame swine flu outbreak on immigrants Conservative media personalities have baselessly blamed Mexican immigrants for spreading swine flu across the border, despite the fact that several reports have indicated that U.S. swine flu patients had recently traveled to Mexico. Read More Limbaugh, Beck assign political motives to response to swine flu Rush Limbaugh claimed that the Obama administration's response to cases of swine flu in the U.S. "is designed to expand the role and power of governments and schools," while Glenn Beck said the motivation behind the response "could be to move [President Obama's] Health and Human Services person into the office rapidly." Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.