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. In same sentence, Hannity cites CBO numbers on health care, while ignoring CBO numbers on cap and trade Sean Hannity selectively cited "the impact of the CBO numbers and the CBO scoring" while discussing health care reform, but not CBO's estimate for cap-and-trade legislation. Read More CNN's Feyerick advances charge that hate crimes bill could ban speech CNN's Deborah Feyerick reported the charge from "some lawmakers and religious groups" that the hate crimes bill "could be used to criminalize conservative speech on abortion or homosexuality." But she did not note that the bill specifically states, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to allow prosecution based solely upon an individual's expression of racial, religious, political, or other beliefs." Read More Fox still peddling debunked cap-and-trade cost figure Fox News advanced the debunked conservative claim that Democrats' cap-and-trade plan will cost American families $3,100 per year. Read More Kilmeade's suggestion that cap-and-trade bill could "double the unemployment numbers" contradicted by CBO Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade asked if the cap-and-trade legislation currently being debated in Congress could "double the unemployment numbers." But Kilmeade did not note that a CBO analysis of the bill found that "any aggregate change in unemployment would be small compared with the normal rate of job turnover in the economy." Read More NY Times uncritically reports Sessions' misrepresentation of Sotomayor's foreign law speech The New York Times uncritically reported Sen. Jeff Sessions' comments on a speech by Sonia Sotomayor on the relevance of foreign law to U.S. judges, but the Times did not note that Sessions distorted Sotomayor's statements. Read More Mika Brzezinski's double standard In the wake of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's admission of an affair with an Argentine woman, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski complained of a "double standard" in the way affairs by politicians "are judged," insisting that Republicans are treated more harshly than Democrats. Brzezinski didn't explicitly say the media play a role in that alleged "double standard," but that's the only plausible interpretation of her comments -- surely she isn't accusing the American people of bias. Read More Following climate change distortions, Will uses widely disputed study to target green jobs Despite George Will's history of misinformation on global warming, The Washington Post published a column by Will citing a widely disputed study that was "supported" by an oil-industry-funded think tank and rejected by the Spanish government to suggest that Spain's high unemployment rate is "partly because of spending" to promote green jobs. Read More CNS, Fox Business silent on controversial views of medical group CNSNews.com and Fox Business Network each gave a platform to representatives of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, but did not note that it is a conservative-leaning group that has promoted and endorsed controversial views on medicine and health. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.