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. Quick Fact: Kilmeade asks if warming is a "farce" and says scientists "fudging the numbers" On the December 7 edition of Fox and Friends, Brian Kilmeade asked guest Ronald Bailey regarding the emails stolen from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (CRU) "does it show that this is a farce?" and later claimed that scientists "use trickery, fudging the data, massaging the stats, it's hard to take it seriously."   Read More Fox's MacCallum falsely claims no Senate Democrats willing to enroll in public option themselves Martha MacCallum falsely claimed that no Democratic senators "wanted to give up" their current health insurance "to join on to a public option." In fact, Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown, Christopher Dodd, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, and Barbara Mikulski have co-sponsored an amendment to mandate congressional members to enroll in the public option, should it pass -- with Democratic co-sponsors now outnumbering Republican co-sponsors of the amendment. Read More Quick Fact: Fox's Varney claimed stimulus spending is "not very successful" Stuart Varney claimed on America's Newsroom that money from the economic recovery act has been spent "not very successfully, according to many analysts," in order to attack any proposal to "spend more stimulus-type money." But the Congressional Budget Office estimated that stimulus spending through September had saved or created as many as 1.6 million jobs and added as much as 3.2 percent to U.S.gross domestic product. Read More Fox News falsely suggests Senate bill "allows funding for abortion" inconsistent with Hyde Amendment During a discussion of Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-NE) proposed amendment to the Senate health care reform bill, Fox News on-screen text falsely suggested that the "current bill allows funding for abortion" beyond what is currently allowed under the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest. In fact, the Senate bill explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to provide coverage for abortions that are not allowed under the Hyde Amendment and requires segregation of non-federal funds from federal funds to pay for those procedures -- a practice that is similar to the way that many states cover such abortions under the federally subsidized Medicaid program. Read More Another disclosure problem: Fox lets former senior adviser Pinkerton defend Huckabee commutation without noting ties During the December 5 edition of Fox News Watch -- Fox News' media criticism show -- contributor James Pinkerton defended Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's role in granting a commutation for Maurice Clemmons, who has been accused of killing four police officers in Lakewood, Washington; Fox News did not disclose that Pinkerton served as a senior adviser to Huckabee's presidential campaign. The lack of disclosure comes after Fox News reportedly admitted a mistake in allowing host Gretchen Carlson to interview athlete Derek Jeter without disclosing that her husband is Jeter's agent. Read More NPR reporter Liasson to continue validating Fox's news programs while ignoring its 24-7 political operation National Public Radio national political correspondent Mara Liasson has reportedly declined a request by NPR executives that she reconsider appearing regularly on Fox News because of "what they perceived as the network's political bias," according to Politico, which also reported that "Liasson defended her work for Fox by saying that she appears on two of the network's news programs, not on commentary programs with conservative hosts." In fact, the "news programs" on which Liasson appears, Special Report and Fox News Sunday, echo Fox's right-wing opinion shows, often featuring smears, falsehoods, doctored and deceptive editing, and GOP talking points. Read More Fox Nation, Big Government advance smear that Jennings is "linked to shocking sex talk" Fox Nation and Big Government are trumpeting the latest smear on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings: that Jennings is, in the words of Fox Nation, "linked to shocking teen sex talk," referring to a recorded exchange that occurred during a "Queer Sex and Sexuality" workshop during a 2000 conference sponsored by Jennings' organization, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). In fact, Jennings reportedly criticized "some of the" workshop's "content" when the recordings were first released in 2000, and the people involved in conducting the controversial discussion -- none of whom were GLSEN employees -- were either terminated or resigned. Read More Conservatives express outrage over Reid slavery remarks -- yet routinely claim progressives enslaving America Conservative media figures have attacked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) remarks linking slavery to Republican opposition to health care reform legislation, but have routinely attacked progressives and the Obama administration for creating "slavery" and enslaving the public. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.