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. AP falsehood: Obama health plan "would add around $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years" The Associated Press reported that "even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says" health reform bills "with the elements Obama wants would add around $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years." In fact, the CBO has found that the only complete bill to be given a cost estimate "would result in a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period." Read More Malkin cites Katz in attack on unemployment benefits -- but Katz supports them in current crisis On ABC's This Week, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin claimed that "it was Larry Katz, who was a chief labor economist under the Clinton Labor Department, who came out with a study ... that if you keep extending these temporary unemployment benefits, you're just going to extend joblessness even more." But Katz has reportedly said that should not be a concern during the current financial crisis because of the scarcity of jobs. Read More Ignoring D.C. rally, Matthews claims "there's no public demonstration of support" for health reform Asserting that "[w]hen somebody wants something, they fill the streets of Washington," Hardball host Chris Matthews falsely claimed that "[t]here's no public demonstration of support for health care" since President Obama was elected. In fact, thousands of supporters of health care reform reportedly rallied in Washington, D.C., on June 25. Read More Malkin, Cunningham push false claim that Michelle Obama's "salary triple[d]" for working "same job" after husband elected to Senate On his radio show, Bill Cunningham asked conservative columnist Michelle Malkin whether Michelle Obama's University of Chicago Medical Center "salary triple[d]" for working "the same job" "when her husband became a U.S. senator." Malkin replied by citing a chart from her book which falsely claimed that the first lady's salary was $317,000 from 2005 to 2008. In fact, Obama's salary did not increase for working "the same job" -- in 2005, she received nearly $317,000 because of her promotion to vice president, which came with an increase in responsibility, as well as a one-time bonus and pension payout. Read More ABC's Cuomo falsely suggests Obama is culpable for billions misspent under Bush On ABC's Good Morning America, Chris Cuomo falsely suggested "a new report" found that $72 billion has been misspent this year under the Obama administration. In fact, according to the Heritage Foundation study that Cuomo cited, "The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008," and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) similarly found that "[a]gencies reported improper payment estimates of $72 billion for fiscal year 2008" -- when President Bush was still in office. Read More The New Yorker raises a toast to birther nut Michael Savage If you've been under the impression that right-wing radio host Michael Savage, who claims Barack Obama was born in Kenya, was schooled at a radical Islamic madrassa, and is now "raping America," was a hate merchant who operated on the edges of common decency, and represented a primetime player in the unfolding far-right campaign to delegitimize and dehumanize the president, The New Yorker wants you put those assumptions aside. Read More Drudge, Fox Nation mischaracterize Obama remarks as supporting end to private health insurance On August 3, the Drudge Report and the Fox Nation linked to a YouTube video with the headlines, "Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will 'Eliminate' Private Insurance" and "2007 Video! Did Obama Say He Wants to Kill Private Insurance?," respectively. However, the video clip cropped Obama's comments and mischaracterized them: Obama was not discussing the elimination of private insurance, but rather how health insurance could transition from a system of primarily "employer coverage" to a "much more portable system." Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.