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. Huckabee sends viewers to his PAC under the guise of signing a petition On two Fox News shows, Fox host Mike Huckabee directed viewers to "go to balancecutsave.com," urging them to sign a petition telling Congress to "balance the budget," "cut their spending," and "save American families"; however, balancecutsave.com redirects visitors to a web page soliciting donations for Huckabee's political action committee, which financially supports Republican candidates and also pays Huckabee's daughter's salary. Huckabee is the latest Fox News personality to ask viewers to visit PAC websites without disclosing the website's nature or whether they stand to gain financially from viewers' donations. Read More Hannity continued to push "statutory rape" smear even after Fox reporter questioned story's accuracy On October 1, Fox News writer Maxim Lott acknowledged that he did not know whether the former student at the center of Fox's smear campaign against Kevin Jennings was in fact only 15 years old when -- 21 years ago -- that student told Jennings of his involvement with an "older man." But despite Fox's own reporter's questions about the accuracy of the story, Fox host Sean Hannity subsequently repeated the false allegation that Jennings failed to report to authorities the "statutory rape" of a 15-year-old. Read More Fox News tirelessly advanced false accusation that Jennings covered up "statutory rape" Fox News and its websites Fox Nation and FoxNews.com repeatedly advanced the falsehood that Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, in the words of Fox News host Bill Hemmer, knew of a "statutory rape" and "never reported it." While pushing this attack on Jennings, Fox News ignored evidence that the student who told Jennings about his relationship with an older man was of legal age, and Media Matters for America has since confirmed that the student was of legal age and that Fox News' smears of Jennings were scurrilous and false. Read More The NY Times' pointless pursuit of right-wing "buzz" stories Jill Abramson, the managing editor for news, agreed with me that the paper was "slow off the mark," and blamed "insufficient tuned-in-ness to the issues that are dominating Fox News and talk radio." She and Bill Keller, the executive editor, said last week that they would now assign an editor to monitor opinion media and brief them frequently on bubbling controversies. Read More Right-wing media's relentless attacks supported by flagrant falsehoods Recently, the right-wing media have engaged in relentless attacks on President Obama and his administration and progressive organizations. Those attacks have repeatedly turned out to be based on demonstrably false claims -- such as the claim that Education Department official Kevin Jennings "cover[ed] up statutory rape." Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.