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. WSJ's Strassel baselessly claims MA voters rejected "ObamaCare" because their state health reform "bombed" In a Wall Street Journal column, Kim Strassel wrote that Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown "turned his Senate bid into a referendum on President Obama's health plan" and baselessly claimed that "[a] big reason only 25% of Massachusetts voters strongly approve of ObamaCare" is because their own universal health care program "bombed." In fact, a recent poll shows that a majority in Massachusetts support the 2006 state plan; moreover, Brown had argued during the campaign that since the state already passed health reform, it would not benefit from a national plan. Read More Quick Fact: IBD again pushing discredited claim that affordable housing caused financial collapse An Investor's Business Daily editorial advanced the discredited claim that efforts to "facilitate homeownership among minorities" and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) "undermined the financial system" and "started" the "financial collapse." Numerous experts, including Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, have said that the CRA did not contribute to the crisis "in any substantive way." Read More Limbaugh lies in defense of his comments about Jewish people on Wall Street Calling for Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to apologize to him, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that he was referring only to what "Jew-haters" believe when he made comments about Jewish people on Wall Street. In fact, while Limbaugh did discuss what he said people with prejudice believe, he also clearly stated -- as fact and in his own voice -- that "a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there's starting to be some buyer's remorse there." Read More Beck's "shocking" and "disturbing" documentary caps month of suggesting progressives are prone to violence In recent weeks Glenn Beck has promoted a documentary special titled "Revolutionary Holocaust" that he says shows "really disturbing and shocking stuff," purportedly to show "the dirty little secret" that progressives helped cause "some of the most horrifying outcomes in history." Beck's documentary comes at the end of a month-long campaign during which he has used violent rhetoric suggesting that progressives pose a physical danger to President Obama and "you." Read More News Corp.'s support for combating climate change undermined by deniers at Fox News, WSJ News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has stated that News Corp. "can set an example" and "reach our audiences" when it comes to fighting climate change, promising in 2007 to make all of News Corp.'s operations carbon neutral by 2010 and most recently commissioning pollster Frank Luntz to conduct a survey that reportedly studied the most effective way to communicate with voters on climate change. However, media figures at his news outlets, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, have routinely advanced false and misleading claims in denying climate change. Read More Media conservatives accuse Obama of "raping," declaring "war" on banks by proposing regulatory reform After President Obama proposed regulatory reform over the financial services industry in order to avoid "operating under the same rules that led to its near collapse," media conservatives have stated that Obama is "bash[ing]" or engaged in a "war" on banks. Rush Limbaugh stated that Obama was "raping" banks. Read More WSJ latest to spread falsehoods about Abdulmutallab arrest to claim Obama's terrorism policy is "dangerous" Accusing President Obama of "dangerous folly," The Wall Street Journal falsely claimed that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, "told the Senate that by immediately handing [alleged Christmas Day attacker Umar Farouk] Abdulmutallab to the civilian justice system, the government all but slammed the door on its ability to interrogate him thoroughly." In fact, Blair has acknowledged that the FBI gained "important intelligence" from Abdulmutallab. Read More Hopeless: Fox News stands virtually alone in not airing Haiti benefit concert On January 22, a wide variety of broadcast, cable, radio, and internet outlets, including CNN and MSNBC, preempted their regularly scheduled prime-time programming and aired Hope for Haiti Now, a benefit concert and telethon to raise funds for Haiti earthquake relief. But even after receiving criticism for giving little coverage to the devastating earthquake in Haiti on its top-rated programs, Fox News did not preempt its programming and air the benefit concert, instead broadcasting regular editions of The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity. Read More Hannity falsely claims Abdulmutallab was not interrogated Sean Hannity falsely claimed that alleged Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was not interrogated, stating, "we have an underwear bomber that has information, that wanted to kill 300 Americans and we don't interrogate the guy and we let him lawyer-up." In fact, FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that interrogators did interview Abdulmutallab without Miranda warnings to "gain intelligence" about whether there were other bombs or co-conspirators. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.