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: Doocy ignores Bush policies to claim Abdulmutallab criminal charges "takes us back to the days of the Clinton administration" On the January 4 edition of Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy claimed that the decision to try Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is alleged to have attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight, in civilian court, rather than holding Abdulmutallab as an "enemy combatant," "takes us back to the days of the Clinton administration, when things like this were treated as a law enforcement issue, and not as a national security issue." In fact, the Bush administration also tried and convicted several terrorism suspects in civilian court. Read More Quick Fact: Fox & Friends still pushing Obama's "ties" to ACORN On Fox & Friends, The Wall Street Journal's John Fund exaggerated the White House's "ties" to ACORN by claiming that President Obama was a "top trainer for ACORN" and that he was "their lawyer back in the 1990s." In fact, Obama represented ACORN in one lawsuit -- alongside the Justice Department and several other organizations -- and reportedly said he participated in two one-hour trainings with ACORN as a volunteer. Read More Quick Fact: Fox & Friends advanced debunked claim that ACORN's Lewis visited White House On Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson falsely claimed that ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis "got an inside look at the White House just days before those explosive undercover tapes about ACORN were released," presumably referring to right-wing claims that recently released White House visitor logs included Lewis' name. In fact, the "Bertha Lewis" who visited the White House was reportedly not the Bertha Lewis who is the CEO of ACORN. Read More Ignoring his past remarks, Bozell says "if" Limbaugh said liberals "want to kill people," "[i]t would be the end of his career" In a December 31 Newsmax article, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell is quoted as saying that if Rush Limbaugh said liberals "want to kill people," then "[i]t would be the end of his career." But Limbaugh has made numerous remarks of the sort, including declaring that "It's the American Left that wants you to die" and that the Democratic Party is "obsessed with your death." Read More How about some New Year's resolutions for the right-wing media machine? It's that time of year again. Some have vowed to hit the gym more often. Others are swearing off cigarettes. For some, coffee has been replaced with copious amounts of socialist green tea. Still others are signing up for community service projects to help improve the world around them. Read More Fox's "kind of misleading and, arguably, dangerous" profiling advocacy In the wake of the Christmas Day attempt to detonate a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight, numerous Fox News hosts, contributors, and guests have called for profiling of Muslims by airport security personnel. But several national security experts have termed such policies ineffective, with Bush administration secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff stating that "relying on preconceptions or stereotypes is actually kind of misleading and, arguably, dangerous." Read More Conservatives defend, endorse Hume's suggestion that Tiger Woods convert to Christianity to "make a total recovery" On the January 3 edition of Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume commented that his "message" to Tiger Woods -- who Hume mentioned is "said to be a Buddhist" -- would be to "turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world." Since then, several conservative commentators have endorsed Hume's remarks or defended them from criticism. Read More Fox suggests U.S. embassy closure in Yemen "a sign of weakness," ignores 2002 closing of same embassy by Bush On the January 3 edition of Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol called the closing of the U.S. embassy in Yemen "a sign of weakness" and "a victory for Al Qaeda"; Fox News' website, the Fox Nation, echoed Kristol's point the next day using the headline: "Is Closing U.S. Embassy in Yemen a Sign of Weakness?" Neither noted that the U.S. embassy in Yemen was previously closed during the Bush administration; additionally, on January 3 and 4, several other countries also closed their embassies in Yemen. Read More Beck's Misinformer of the Year defense rests on falsehoods Glenn Beck devoted the full hour of his Fox News show to responding to "some liberal blogs" that had named him Misinformer of the Year, asserting that the blogs "didn't back it up with any facts." Beck's 60-minute rebuttal ignored numerous facts set forth by Media Matters for America undermining a litany of Beck's claims throughout 2009; moreover, his defense itself rested on misrepresentations and false claims. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.