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. Moore falsely suggested all small business would be taxed under health care reform Appearing on Fox News, Wall Street Journal senior economics writer Stephen Moore again falsely suggested that health care reform legislation would "impose an 8 percent payroll tax on" all small businesses, which would "increase the cost of hiring a new worker." In fact, the "8-percent payroll tax" in the House health care reform bill is a penalty on certain employers who do not provide health care coverage to their employees; businesses that provide health care coverage would be exempt from the tax. Read More Fox News' Goler ignored his network's freak-out over school speech Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler reported that the "controversy" over President Obama's September 8 speech to students on the importance of education "spread quickly over the Internet and on conservative talk shows, and some parents are now threatening to keep their kids home next Tuesday." But Goler ignored that Fox News has repeatedly hyped the "controversy," with hosts and guests describing Obama's speech as an "indoctrination;" advancing comparisons of Obama to dictators; and, highlighting the plans of some to "keep kids home" on the day of Obama's address. Read More Politico again allows Gingrich to promote policies favorable to his group's funders In a September 3 Politico op-ed, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich promoted medical malpractice reform and criticized current Democratic-backed health reform legislation. But in providing a forum for Gingrich to discuss health care, Politico again failed to disclose that his Center for Health Transformation -- a for-profit entity that Gingrich founded and reportedly profits from -- receives annual membership fees from several groups representing physicians that have a financial interest in promoting tort reform. Read More AP cites "sweetheart loan scandal" while ignoring that Ethics Committee cleared Dodd of charges The Associated Press reported that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) "faces a tough re-election fight next year after being embroiled in a sweetheart loan scandal and legislation that allowed bailed-out insurance giant AIG to pay out millions of dollars in employee bonuses." However, the AP ignored that Dodd was cleared of the charges by the Senate Ethics Committee in the "sweetheart loan scandal" and that the executive compensation amendment he proposed actually limited bonuses within institutions receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds. Read More Sean Hannity should write a thesis about his hypocrisy On his radio program, Fox News' Sean Hannity claimed that The Washington Post is trying to "smear, besmirch, [and] demonize" Virginia gubernatorial candidate Robert McDonnell (R) by going through "the great effort to dig up a graduate school thesis that he wrote," adding that a thesis "by design is supposed to be provocative" and that McDonnell wrote his "20 years ago." But during the 2008 presidential campaign, Hannity aggressively attacked Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton for college theses they wrote more than 20 years ago. Read More Wash. Times misleads with poll to claim Obama's Muslim outreach "may not be working" In an editorial, The Washington Times claimed that President Obama's efforts at Muslim outreach "may not be working," citing as evidence a poll which found that a majority or large minority of residents of several countries and territories with sizable Muslim populations do not have confidence Obama will "do the right thing in world affairs." However, The Washington Times did not note that the poll's report indicated that in those countries for which data is available, residents have significantly more confidence in Obama than they did in President Bush in 2008. Read More Glenn Beck no stranger to conspiracy theories or incendiary rhetoric Fox News host Glenn Beck has become notorious for his conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric. Among other things, he has flirted with the idea that FEMA is building detention camps, suggested that President Obama is purposefully "tanking" the economy to force young people to work for ACORN and AmeriCorps, and said that Obama and former President George W. Bush are "moving us away from our republic and into a system of fascism." Read More The Friday Rush: The arrogance and misinformation persist, even when Limbaugh is away Rush was off this week, but we weren't. And in his absence, three fill-ins -- Mark Davis, Mark Steyn, and Walter E. Williams -- took the microphone for Limbaugh and polluted the airwaves with mostly the same mix of arrogance, loathing, and misinformation that Rush would have. So the week wasn't so much a change in content as it was a change in pitch and tone of voice. (Our ears have built up an immunity to Rush's voice to the point where they rarely bleed anymore, but our bodily defenses aren't up to the task for guest hosts.) Read More Media Matters: Glue? Check. Protractor? Check. No. 2 pencils? Check. Insane reaction to president's back-to-school speech? Check. It's that time of the year again. Parents are busy preparing their children for the first day of school while children are busy holding on to every minute left in their precious summer vacation. But, out in the distance, an ominous threat is looming. That threat has a name ... gulp ... and it is ... whimper ... President Barack Hussein Obama. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.