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. Hume advances falsehood that tax cuts are "Republican ideas" Brit Hume asserted that Democrats "could turn [the stimulus] into business-friendly tax cuts or personal income tax rate cuts," but that "those are Republican ideas." In fact, the recovery act included tax incentives for businesses estimated to total $75.9 billion in 2009 and 2010. Read More Hannity superglued to health-care misinformation Referring to a British man who "superglued his tooth together," Sean Hannity stated: "The Democrats have their way [on health-care reform], get your superglue ready." However, a U.S. woman reportedly has also glued in her teeth because of the costs of dental care. Read More Hannity makes a habit of distorting quotes to smear progressives Sean Hannity has repeatedly smeared progressives and Democrats by cropping their comments in ways that misrepresented them. Most recently, he cropped President Obama's answer to a question about the Cold War to falsely suggest he wasn't acknowledging the achievements of past presidents in freeing Eastern Europe. Read More Echoing Boehner, WSJ editorial falsely claimed public plan would cost $1 trillion A Wall Street Journal editorial echoed House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-OH) false claim that the public insurance option would cost a trillion dollars. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office found that the public option as outlined by the Senate health committee's bill "did not have a substantial effect on the cost ... projections" for health care reform. Read More Wash. Post reports criticism of Sotomayor for citing "policy considerations" in lawsuit -- but that's what appellate courts do The Washington Post reported that Sonia Sotomayor "pointed to 'powerful policy considerations' in allowing a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard." But numerous legal experts have noted that appellate judges have policymaking roles. Indeed, the Supreme Court has cited "policy" considerations in interpreting the provision at issue in the appeal. Read More Fox's Varney, Napolitano blame affordable housing programs for mortgage crisis Stuart Varney and Andrew Napolitano advanced the discredited claim that efforts to expand affordable housing were responsible for the housing market crash. Read More Grief-giver Scarborough says his "friend" Pelosi "caught a lot of grief" for accusing CIA of lying Joe Scarborough said that Nancy Pelosi "caught a lot of grief" over saying the CIA misled her about its use of enhanced interrogation techniques. However, in May, Scarborough had himself accused Pelosi of lying about the issue, calling her allegations a "joke." Read More Equal weight? Wash. Post provides Heritage cap-and-trade cost estimate with EPA's, CBO's The Washington Post answered a question about the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill by providing estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, as well as a much higher estimate from the Heritage Foundation. The Post did not explain why it gave equal weight to the Heritage estimate. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.