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. Bolling falsely claims only 595,000 jobs have been created by the stimulus On the February 16 edition of Fox News' Fox and Friends, guest host Eric Bolling claimed of stimulus money: "$272 billion has been spent," but only "595,000 jobs [have been] created," adding, "that's $450,000 per job." In fact, the Recovery.gov employment numbers Bolling cited only represents jobs funded from October 1-December 31, 2009, which make up a small part of the total number of jobs that the White House and other economists estimate have been funded by the stimulus. Read More Fox News twists words of climate scientist Phil Jones in its continued assault on global warming theory Following a February 13 BBC Q&A with Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, Fox News' Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney and Fox & Friends have distorted Jones' comments to suggest that they undermine the consensus that human activities are contributing to warming global temperatures. Read More Fox News claims Palin "slammed ... Limbaugh for using 'retard' " -- but she excused his remarks as "satirical" In an article about Sarah Palin's critical response to the Fox comedy, Family Guy, "after the show appeared to mock Palin's Down syndrome son," FoxNews.com claimed that Palin also "recently slammed ... radio talk host Rush Limbaugh for using the word 'retard.' " In fact, Palin excused Limbaugh's remarks as "satirical." Read More Right-wing blogs campaign to get Dem candidate on IN ballot with avowed aim of supposed GOP gain Following the announcement yesterday that Evan Bayh (D-IN) would retire his Senate seat, several right-wing bloggers attempted to corrupt the political process by calling on their readers in Indiana to gather signatures for Democratic candidate Tamyra D'Ippolito for the avowed purpose of supposedly benefitting conservatives and the Republican Party. This is only the latest instance of right-wing media supporting flagrant disregard for the democratic process in order to benefit conservatives. Read More Stanek's selection exposes the credentials required to be a right-wing media critic Both Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism and the Media Research Center's NewsBusters have recently added anti-abortion activist Jill Stanek as a blogger. Stanek has a history of inflammatory and dubious claims; in her inaugural NewsBusters post, however, she admits that she's "not a student of" media analysis. Read More You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.