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. How Fox's Chris Wallace became irrelevant You think the Obama White House hit a nerve over the weekend when it purposefully left Fox News Sunday off the president's generous list of Sunday talk-show appearances? Read More Hannity reasserts control over Fox News' witch hunt of Obama appointees On his Fox News program, Sean Hannity aired a list of "10 people who President Obama has appointed or nominated to work on your behalf in your government," and asked, "Should any of them be fired?" Hannity's case for dismissing the advisers largely consisted of false attacks, distortions, and trivial guilt by association. Read More Krauthammer ignored former CIA directors Bush, Turner to claim only Obama officials failed to sign letter against investigation Appearing on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer falsely asserted that a letter from seven former CIA directors calling on President Obama to "reverse Attorney General Holder's August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations" was signed "by every living CIA director" except Defense Secretary Robert Gates and current CIA director Leon Panetta, whom Krauthammer noted were "in the Obama Cabinet." In fact, former CIA directors George H.W. Bush and Stansfield Turner also did not sign the letter. Read More Hannity uses CDC announcement of H1N1 vaccine priorities to fearmonger about rationing On September 21, Sean Hannity again fearmongered about health care rationing, claiming that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) "literally [has] a list of priorities" regarding which populations receive the H1N1 flu vaccine, and that people age 65 and older are "last on the list," which amounts to "a form of government deciding rationing." In fact, CDC's advisory board explained that it does not anticipate a shortage of H1N1 vaccine but issued the priorities list because "availability and demand can be unpredictable" and said that the "risk for infection among persons age 65 or older is less than the risk for younger age groups." Read More Dick Morris again using Fox News to fundraise for group that pays him On Hannity, Dick Morris again used an appearance on Fox News to raise money for an organization in which he has a financial interest, directing viewers to his website, DickMorris.com, and urging them to learn "how to contribute to 10-second ads we are now running" against health care reform plans, adding, "I really hope people can make it possible for us to do that." Morris is the chief strategist for the League of American Voters, the group running the ads warning about "rationing" of health care, and he has a history of appearing on Fox News programs to advance the interests of organizations that pay him. Read More Media conservatives denounce Glenn Beck's "hatred" On September 22, conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough announced an "honor roll" for conservatives who are willing to denounce Glenn Beck's "hatred," making specific reference to Beck's statement that President Obama is "a racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people." Several media conservatives in addition to Scarborough have denounced Beck's rhetoric as "harmful" and "race-baiting." Read More Fox's Megyn Kelly now notes some ACORN workers "did the right thing" During a segment on the fallout from the undercover ACORN videos, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly noted on September 22 that "it appears that not every ACORN worker did go along with it" and that "as ACORN pointed out when this thing first broke, some of their workers did the right thing." But during a September 16 segment on ACORN, Kelly suggested that the entire organization should be punished and ignored that a Philadelphia ACORN worker contacted the police, even though that information had been reported elsewhere, including on CNN on September 11. Read More Fox News' left-wing conspiracy chart fetish Glenn Beck unveiled yet another liberal conspiracy chart during the September 21 edition of his Fox News program, purporting to connect George Soros, the Tides Foundation, Health Care for America Now, the Apollo Alliance, ACORN, and SEIU. In light of Beck's growing obsession with conspiracy charts, Media Matters for America has rounded up highlights of Fox News' liberal conspiracy charts. Read More Limbaugh, Beck help rally GOP lawmakers to call for investigation of ACORN In a recent Politico article, Rush Limbaugh was quoted as saying that he doesn't "rally people" to take action because when he tried to do so early in his radio career, "the reaction to it from the media was that the response was not genuine ... because people only did what they did because 'Limbaugh told them to.' " However, following the release of controversial ACORN videos that were heavily promoted by Fox News' Glenn Beck, Limbaugh and Beck have helped "rally" numerous Republican lawmakers to call for investigations of ACORN. Read More RedState's ACORN "exclusive" based on theft? Another questionable tactic in conservative assault on Obama, ACORN In a recent "exclusive" report, RedState.com editor-in-chief Erick Erickson analyzed "a list of [ACORN CEO] Bertha Lewis's contacts" that "just showed up one day unsolicited" from "a credible source who is no fan of ACORN," and claimed, "We did not ask for it. We did not expect to get it. But now that we have it, we should see who is in there." In analyzing a private contact list apparently obtained without Lewis' knowledge or permission, conservatives, in their obsessive quest to attack ACORN, have added possible theft to a growing list of questionable tactics that include the secret taping of ACORN employees, lying about whether any ACORN officials turned away filmmaker-activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, and secretly taping a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) phone conference. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.