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. UPDATED: Myths and falsehoods about health care reform Media Matters for America identifies and debunks four more myths and falsehoods surrounding the health care reform debate, bringing the total to 18. Read More REPORT: Fox News' town hall coverage amplifies opponents of health care reform, ignores supporters A Media Matters for America review found that, during the week of August 24, Fox News aired 22 clips of town hall meeting attendees expressing an opinion or asking a question that opposed progressive health care reform efforts but aired zero clips of town hall attendees expressing an opinion or asking a question supporting reform. Read More Parker advances myth that conservative proposal merely about "exclud[ing] abortion" from health reform bill In her Washington Post column, Kathleen Parker described an amendment to the House's health care reform bill by anti-abortion members of Congress merely as a proposal "to exclude abortion from the bills" and suggested that a compromise provision in one of the versions of the House bills would change current law by allowing federally subsidized insurance plans to cover abortion as long as federal funds are not used. In fact, the anti-abortion proposal would effectively ban abortion coverage for those participating in health insurance plans that would be part of the proposed health insurance exchange -- including those who currently have such coverage -- and contrary to Parker's suggestion that "[s]egregating funding" would reverse current law, Medicaid already allows states to cover abortion so long as they don't use federal funds. Read More NY Times truncates Obama speech to forward "pull the plug on Grandma" health care reform falsehood The New York Times cropped a quote from President Obama's Labor Day speech to suggest that Obama responded to health care reform critics who "say we're going to pull the plug on Grandma" by conceding that policies he supports would allow for such actions to occur. In fact, in his Labor Day speech, Obama explicitly referred to claims that health care reform is "going to pull the plug on Grandma" as "lies." Read More Politico suggests conflict between public option and "cost-conscious" lawmakers A September 8 Politico article described opponents of a public health insurance option as "cost-conscious" in false contrast to "liberals who demand a public option." In fact, both the House and Senate health care reform bills require the public plan to be self-sustaining, and the Congressional Budget Office concluded that a public option did "not have a substantial effect on the cost" of the Senate health committee bill. Read More Rev. Wright redux: Media use Jones controversy to revive Wright smear Conservative media figures have used the controversy over former White House adviser Van Jones' past statements as an excuse to again link President Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a favorite bogeyman of the conservative media during and after the 2008 presidential campaign. On Fox News, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Charles Krauthammer have all invoked Wright while discussing Jones in order to question Obama's associations, while on his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said, "Van Jones is Jeremiah Wright. ... Van Jones is Obama." Read More CNN's John King ignored progressive experts' critique of health insurance co-op plan CNN correspondent John King reported on CNN Newsroom that health insurance "co-op fans say their way makes more sense than a new government-run health insurance option" but ignored the progressive position that co-ops are an insufficient replacement for the public option. Media Matters for America has documented a pattern of the media ignoring progressive experts' position on health care co-ops. Read More Bill O'Reilly called for more "czars" during Bush administration Fox News personalities, including O'Reilly Factor guest-host Laura Ingraham, have attacked President Obama for appointing "czars" -- a term the channel uses to refer to any White House official tasked to advise the president on a specific issue, regardless of whether the position is subject to Senate confirmation -- with Fox News host Gretchen Carlson singling out the appointment of a "border czar" for criticism. However, during the Bush administration, Fox's Bill O'Reilly called for the appointment of an "immigration czar," as well as a "charity czar" and a "disaster relief victims family czar." Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.