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. Politico forwards falsehoods on Obama speech to students Reporting on the conservative reaction to President Obama's planned speech to students, the Politico uncritically quoted Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer's claim that Obama will speak about "his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies." PolitiFact.com, however, found Greer's claim to be "factually incorrect" and noted that the Florida Republican Party was unable to provide any support for his statement. Read More Conservative media take a strong stand against ... learning?!? If there is anybody out there who still doesn't believe that the conservative media will attack President Obama no matter what he does, consider this: Right-wingers are telling children to skip school as a protest against Obama's encouragement of students to stay in school. Read More Conservative media accuse Obama of "indoctrinating" kids with back-to-school speech Numerous conservative media figures have baselessly accused President Obama of trying to "indoctrinate" America's children with his planned back-to-school speech encouraging students to succeed and persist in their studies. Sean Hannity claimed that "it seems very close to indoctrination," while Fox News commentator Monica Crowley said "just when you think this administration can't get any more surreal and Orwellian, here they come to indoctrinate our kids"; similarly, Michelle Malkin claimed that "the left has always used kids in public schools as guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda." Read More AP again botched net cost of health care plan The Associated Press again falsely reported that "[n]onpartisan budget officials" said President Obama's health care plan could "increase the federal deficit by about $1 trillion," when in fact the Congressional Budget Office 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." The Los Angeles Times and Reuters also ignored CBO's conclusion that the plan would increase the deficit by less than a quarter of the cost they reported. Read More Rove blasts reconciliation for health care, but supported GOP use of procedure In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove attacked the idea of using the budget reconciliation process to pass health care reform with a simple majority of Senate votes, referring to the procedure as a "parliamentary trick." But as a senior adviser in the Bush White House, Rove supported the use of reconciliation to pass major Bush administration initiatives. Read More Media reach to invoke Ayers in attacks on Obama's speech to students Conservative media figures have used President Obama's planned back-to-school speech -- intended to encourage students to succeed and persist in their studies -- as an excuse to baselessly connect Obama and his education policies to William Ayers, a favorite bogeyman of the conservative media during the 2008 presidential campaign. A Washington Times editorial invoked Ayers while criticizing the administration's suggestions for student activities related to the speech, calling it "troubling in light of Mr. Obama's history of radical activism in schools," while Michelle Malkin claimed the speech amounted to "[a]busing and exploiting children" and said "[i]t all goes back to Bill Ayers in Chicago." Read More Not surprisingly, you can't rely on Mark Fuhrman for truth about health care On Fox News' Hannity, former Los Angeles police officer and Fox News contributor Mark Fuhrman pushed the myth that the government can't run health care programs, claiming that "the VA [Veterans Administration] and Medicare" are "total government failures" and citing Walter Reed hospital as an example of the VA's supposed failure. In fact, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system has won praise, Medicare is an extremely popular program and its costs have risen more slowly than private insurance, and Walter Reed is not run by the VA. Read More Will Fox & Friends set story straight on NH town hall? On August 31 and September 1, the hosts of Fox & Friends repeatedly claimed that at an August 29 town meeting, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) had Carl Tomanelli, an attendee who opposes health care reform, "ejected" on the grounds that "he did not have the correct ticket to speak." But the New Hampshire Union Leader reported that the man was ejected because he repeatedly interrupted the congresswoman and other attendees during the meeting, a statement now supported by a New Hampshire police lieutenant who acted as security for the event and who also said that "[a]t no time did Representative Shea-Porter advise an officer" to remove Tomanelli. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.