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1. Bennett Corrects Blitzer on Rush, CNN Cites 'Chicken Hawk' Insult Bill Bennett corrected CNN's Wolf Blitzer's presumption on Monday that Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment was directed at soldiers who served in Iraq and now oppose the war, but in setting up the "Strategy Session" segment on Tuesday's The Situation Room, Blitzer again adopted as fact the spin of the far-left group pushing the attack on Limbaugh. With the text on screen, Blitzer highlighted how "Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania...says: 'Someone should tell chicken hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do.'" To Bennett and Donna Brazile, Blitzer wondered: "What do you make of this strategy that Harry Reid...and others are saying now that Rush Limbaugh was inappropriately offensive to veterans?" Bennett retorted with "not much" and observed: "When you shoot at a king, and he's the king of talk radio, you better get him. They didn't get him here." On Tuesday morning, CNN's Kiran Chetry proposed: "Two weeks after Republicans went after MoveOn.org's 'General Betray Us' ad, the Democrats are turning the tables on Rush Limbaugh. They say that he made hateful and unpatriotic remarks about U.S. troops." Not until the end, after relaying Senator Tom Harkin's insult that "maybe he was just high on his drugs," did Chetry provide Limbaugh's take. 2. FNC Shows Dems Criticizing Troops: 'Who Said That? Not Limbaugh!' FNC's John Gibson opened Tuesday's The Big Story by looking at the "gall" of liberal Democrats condemning Rush Limbaugh for supposedly insulting as "phony soldiers" Iraq war veterans who oppose the war. During a segment with former Republican Senator Rick Santorum and Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online, on how liberals have deliberately misconstrued Limbaugh's remark, Gibson played soundbites, critical of troop performance, from Senator Harry Reid, Senator John Kerry, Congressman John Murtha and Senator Dick Durbin. Following each clip, FNC displayed a bumper with a sound effect: "Who said that? Not Rush Limbaugh!" Gibson explained after the four videos aired: "None of those things were uttered by Rush Limbaugh. I mean, in a way you wonder where do they get the, I don't know, gall to be going after him over this?" 3. Ingraham Smacks Down CNN's Toobin on Clarence Thomas's 'Rage' On Monday night's Anderson Cooper 360, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin unspooled a wild, unsubstantiated theory that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is "furious all the time" and when Cooper asked if his "hatred of the media" started with the Anita Hill charges, Toobin said that event sent his rage into "the stratosphere." Toobin also criticized CBS for not cross-examining Thomas on sexual harassment on 60 Minutes, when "subsequent evidence" (books by liberal reporters) "generally favors Anita Hill, not him, in what really happened between them." On Tuesday's Laura Ingraham radio show, Toobin accepted an interview invitation, and Ingraham, who was a clerk for Justice Thomas, lit into him about his Cooper interview. She found it "incredibly condescending," and also "appalling and stupid." 4. ABC Sympathetically Spins 'Withering' Media Attacks on Anita Hill On Tuesday's Good Morning America, ABC host Robin Roberts sympathetically interviewed Anita Hill and asserted that her 1991 testimony in front of the Senate resulted in the law professor enduring "withering scrutiny from the press." Roberts also pointedly noted that Hill "passed a polygraph test. Clarence Thomas refused to take one. You passed one." An ABC graphic defiantly observed, "Anita Hill: 'I Stand by my Testimony'" The segment on GMA stood in stark contrast to the mostly positive and fair coverage Justice Clarence Thomas received on Monday's Good Morning America and Nightline. 5. Joy Behar: Thomas 'Should Write a Book, "If I Harassed Her'" On Tuesday's The View, Joy Behar played on the title of O.J. Simpson's book, If I Did It, to make a quip that presumed Justice Clarence Thomas was guilty of harassing Anita Hill and Behar, as well as Barbara Walters, pressed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the left on why she and other Democrats are not doing more to end the war in Iraq. A frustrated Walters fretted: "The Democrats came in. They were going to try to bring the troops home. They were going to try to end the war. What happened?" Talking about Thomas's new book, My Grandfather's Son, and Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations, Behar offered this snarky remark: "Why is he writing this book? He won basically the round. He's the Supreme Court Justice for life. He should write a book, 'If I Harassed Her.'" 6. 'Top Ten Ways George W. Bush Can Boost His Approval Rating' Letterman's "Top Ten Ways George W. Bush Can Boost His Approval Rating."
Cites 'Chicken Hawk' Insult Bill Bennett corrected CNN's Wolf Blitzer's presumption on Monday that Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment was directed at soldiers who served in Iraq and now oppose the war, but in setting up the "Strategy Session" segment on Tuesday's The Situation Room, Blitzer again adopted as fact the spin of the far-left group pushing the attack on Limbaugh. With the text on screen, Blitzer highlighted how "Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania...says: 'Someone should tell chicken hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do.'" To Bennett and Donna Brazile, Blitzer wondered: "What do you make of this strategy that Harry Reid...and others are saying now that Rush Limbaugh was inappropriately offensive to veterans?" Bennett retorted with "not much" and observed: "When you shoot at a king, and he's the king of talk radio, you better get him. They didn't get him here." On Monday night, Blitzer had dismissed Limbaugh's explanation, that he was referring to anyone who claims to have served in Iraq but has not, and introduced a story on "Limbaugh's charge that some veterans who are criticizing the war are, in his words, quote, 'phony soldiers.'" Meanwhile, on Tuesday's American Morning, CNN anchor Kiran Chetry proposed: "Two weeks after Republicans went after MoveOn.org's 'General Betray Us' ad, the Democrats are turning the tables on Rush Limbaugh. They say that he made hateful and unpatriotic remarks about U.S. troops on his radio show." Not until the end of the story, after relaying Senator Tom Harkin's insult that "maybe he was just high on his drugs," did Chetry provide Limbaugh's take. [This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] CNN's on screen tag for the 4:45pm EDT segment during the third hour of The Situation Room: "DEMS BLAST LIMBAUGH; Claim: Offends U.S. Troops."
Bennett informed viewers that "the argument was that he used the phrase 'phony soldiers.' He was talking about a phony soldier," namely Jesse MacBeth, and both the AP and ABC News ran pieces on "phony" soldiers. My Friday NewsBusters posting pointed out how ABC's World News, in a September 24 story on what anchor Charles Gibson described using the same "phoney" term as Limbaugh, looked at "phoney heroes" -- those passing themselves off as Iraq war veterans. Reporter Brian Ross noted: The Radio Equalizer blog has a transcript along with video from YouTube of the Ross story: radioequalizer.blogspot.com The Tuesday CyberAlert posting, "Blitzer Joins in Distorting Limbaugh, Advancing Far-Left Smear," began: CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday night matched MSNBC in distorting the target of Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment as the 7pm EDT hour of The Situation Room devoted a full story to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's attack on Limbaugh based on a Friday hit job on Limbaugh by the far-left Media Matters. "It's an angry new shot in the dispute over the war in Iraq," Blitzer asserted before reporting that Limbaugh had charged "that some veterans who are criticizing the war are, in his words, quote, 'phony soldiers.'" In fact, on his show Friday and Monday, Limbaugh made clear he was referring to those who claimed to be soldiers, but never served, a point mentioned by reporter Dana Bash, but only after Blitzer framed the story by adopting as fact the spin of the left wing attack group. Bash offered a favorable take on Reid's reasoning: "Harry Reid combined a biting attack on Limbaugh with a demand for an apology for what Democrats call an insulting rant against soldiers who joined Democrats in opposing the war." Though Bash noted that "Limbaugh insists he was only talking about one anti-war soldier, Jesse MacBeth recently convicted of falsely claiming to have served in Iraq," she proceeded to highlight how "Limbaugh's comments are burning up the liberal blogosphere. Watchdog group Media Matters, among the first to blast Limbaugh, says it doesn't buy his explanation." She next vaunted how "this new escalation of the Iraq debate has Democrats looking to turn the tables after the controversy of MoveOn.org's attack on the commanding General in Iraq." A strategy that will only work if the media play along. Bash did air a bit of Limbaugh's response to Reid: Laughter, followed by "he's got to be a nut!"... For the October 2 CyberAlert article in full: www.mrc.org For MSNBC's approach on Friday, check the Monday CyberAlert item, "MSNBC Smears Limbaugh with 'Phony Soldiers' Distortion," online at: www.mrc.org A transcript of the relevant portion of the "Strategy Session" on the October 2 The Situation Room:
WOLF BLITZER: What do you think of this Democratic strategy now to go after conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh? One Democratic Congressman, Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, a veteran himself, he says [text on screen], "Someone should tell chicken hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do." What do you make of this strategy that Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader and others are saying now that Rush Limbaugh was inappropriately offensive to veterans by some of the comments he recently made? A short news update item at about 7:30am EDT on Tuesday's American Morning: KIRAN CHETRY: Two weeks after Republicans went after MoveOn.org's "General Betray Us" ad, the Democrats are turning the tables on Rush Limbaugh. They say that he made hateful and unpatriotic remarks about U.S. troops on his radio show last week. Here's the conversation.
[CALLER LAST THURSDAY ON LIMBAUGH's RADIO SHOW: They never talked to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.
SEN. HARRY REID ON THE SENATE FLOOR ON MONDAY: Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to attack the courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us. Rush Limbaugh got himself a deferment from serving when he was a young man. In contrast, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough saw a "phony" controversy: "Now you've got Media Matters going after Rush Limbaugh. This really does look like a phony story about a phony soldier." He later added: "It's been blown out of context." For details, see Mark Finkelstein's NewsBusters posting: newsbusters.org
Said That? Not Limbaugh!' FNC's John Gibson opened Tuesday's The Big Story by looking at the "gall" of liberal Democrats condemning Rush Limbaugh for supposedly insulting as "phony soldiers" Iraq war veterans who oppose the war. During a segment with former Republican Senator Rick Santorum and Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online, on how liberals have deliberately misconstrued Limbaugh's remark, Gibson played soundbites, critical of troop performance, from Senator Harry Reid, Senator John Kerry, Congressman John Murtha and Senator Dick Durbin. Following each clip, FNC displayed a bumper with a sound effect: "Who said that? Not Rush Limbaugh!" Gibson explained after the four videos aired: "None of those things were uttered by Rush Limbaugh. I mean, in a way you wonder where do they get the, I don't know, gall to be going after him over this?" [This item was posted, with video, late Tuesday night on the MRC's blog. The video will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert, but in the meantime, to watch the Real or Windows Media video, or to listen to the MP3 audio, go to: newsbusters.org ] The four soundbites in the posted video: # Senator Harry Reid: "That this war is lost, and that the surge is not accomplishing anything." # Senator John Kerry: "If you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." # Congressman John Murtha: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." # Senator Dick Durbin: "If I read this to you and didn't tell you it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime, Pol Pot or others that had no concern for human beings."
Clarence Thomas's 'Rage' On Monday night's Anderson Cooper 360, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin unspooled a wild, unsubstantiated theory that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is "furious all the time" and when Cooper asked if his "hatred of the media" started with the Anita Hill charges, Toobin said that event sent his rage into "the stratosphere." Toobin also criticized CBS for not cross-examining Thomas on sexual harassment on 60 Minutes, when "subsequent evidence" (books by liberal reporters) "generally favors Anita Hill, not him, in what really happened between them." On Tuesday's Laura Ingraham radio show, Toobin accepted an interview invitation, and Ingraham, who was a clerk for Justice Thomas, lit into him about his Cooper interview. She found it "incredibly condescending," and also "appalling and stupid." She asked Toobin if he knew Thomas, and he changed the subject, referring to the theme of anger in his writings and speeches. Later, when Ingraham asked Toobin if he had ever met or interviewed Thomas for his new Supreme Court book, The Nine, he wouldn't even say yes or no. (Ingraham took that as a no.) [This item, by Tim Graham, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] How can someone who's supposedly a media professional claim without ever meeting someone that they're "furious all the time" and even "furious his entire life"? It would be one thing to say Thomas associates or even adversaries have seen an episode of fury, but "furious all the time"? (It's even weirder when, in other interviews -- but not this one -- Toobin reports Thomas is the most popular justice inside the Court. Popular, well-liked -- and "furious all the time"?) The October 1 Cooper-Toobin exchange aired at around 10:50pm EDT, and began with a big promotional "swoosh" of the words "The Nine" and the book cover, with Cooper gurgling about how remarkable Toobin's book was:
ANDERSON COOPER: CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin writes about Justice Thomas in his new book, "The Nine." It's a remarkable book. I spoke to him earlier. [To tape] We just heard Clarence Thomas talking about race. He really has not responded to criticism of him over the years, and there seems to be a lot of anger built up.
[STEVE KROFT ON CBS's 60 MINUTES: Was the Anita Hill that testified on the Hill the Anita Hill that you knew at EEOC?
COOPER: He doesn't really address any of the details of the accusations that came up during those hearings. Ingraham played the "furious his entire life" and "life defined by anger" snippets on her Tuesday show, and walked Toobin through some of the outrages of Anita Hill's unproven charges. She asked Toobin if it was proper for Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to leak raw allegations in Hill's FBI file to the media. He said no. She asked Toobin if he's "ever worked with a woman." He said of course. Has he ever been alone with a woman in the office? Yes. And if that woman came forward ten years later and accused him falsely of sexual harassment, wouldn't he be a little angry about that? Yes. But overall, Toobin was incredibly slippery, trying to tell Ingraham that in his book, he tries to tell the "complete story" of Thomas. But that's not at all what he offered last night on CNN. He made wild allegations about Thomas that he cannot substantiate. CNN ought to be ashamed.
Media Attacks on Anita Hill On Tuesday's Good Morning America, ABC host Robin Roberts sympathetically interviewed Anita Hill and asserted that her 1991 testimony in front of the Senate resulted in the law professor enduring "withering scrutiny from the press." Roberts also pointedly noted that Hill "passed a polygraph test. Clarence Thomas refused to take one. You passed one." An ABC graphic defiantly observed, "Anita Hill: 'I Stand by my Testimony'" The segment on GMA stood in stark contrast to the mostly positive and fair coverage Justice Clarence Thomas received on Monday's Good Morning America and Nightline. (The Supreme Court justice has been promoting his new autobiography.) Reporter Jan Crawford Greenburg allowed Thomas to tell his side of the story and attack accusers, such as when Greenburg noted: "Thomas says he faced more racism in the confirmation fight than he did as a child in the segregated south." As the MRC's Tim Graham wrote on Monday, Hill, who accused then Supreme Court nominee Thomas of sexual harassment, hardly suffered through "withering scrutiny" from many media outlets, especially in the wake of the hearings. In early 1992, 60 Minutes reporter Ed Bradley gingerly asked Hill: "When someone looks at you and sees Anita Hill, what do you want that to mean?" See: newsbusters.org [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] In an interview that same year, Today host Katie Couric didn't exactly grill Thomas's accuser when she asked: "Twenty years from now, fifty years from now, when people look back at these hearings, how do you want them to think of you?" See the October 12, 1992 Notable Quotables: www.mediaresearch.org Although Roberts did ask a few tough questions, many of her queries were of the softball variety. She tacitly seemed to accept the validity of Hill's testimony and invited Hill to comment on whether the workplace situation is "better" 16 years later. The GMA host claimed that Thomas's accuser has "done a lot of work where you are over the years. Is it better now in the workplace for women?" In a 1991 edition of Notable Quotables, the MRC catalogued the vicious attacks from the media on Clarence Thomas and the sympathetic portrayal of Anita Hill. One quote, from Nancy Gibbs in the October 21, 1991 edition of Time magazine, shows the absurdity of claiming Hill suffered "withering" scrutiny: "And then there was Anita Hill, the poised daughter of so many generations of black women who have been burned carrying torches into the battle for principle. The cause of civil rights and social justice has so often fallen to them to defend. Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were slaves by birth, freedom fighters by temperament. Rosa Parks was a tired seamstress who shoved history forward by refusing to give up her seat on the bus....The latest to claim her place in line is Anita Hill, a private, professional woman unwilling to relinquish her dignity without a fight." For more, see the October 28, 1991 Notable Quotables: www.mediaresearch.org A transcript of Tuesday segment, which aired at 7:12am on October 2: 7am tease, Robin Roberts: "Fighting back. Anita Hill, the woman who stood between Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court now facing new questions and new criticisms. Her story and what she has to say to Clarence Thomas now. She joins us live in a GMA exclusive."
7:12, Robin Roberts: "The new book by Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has not just given us a window into one of the most mysterious figures on the court, the book take us back 16 years to those explosive confirmation hearings that rocked the country, deepening the fault lines of race and gender here in America. On Monday, you heard what Justice Thomas had to say about that tumultuous time and what he had to say about his accuser Anita Hill. This morning, we'll hear from her. But first, a look back at those hearings." ABC Graphic: "Anita Hill: 'I Stand by my Testimony'"
Hill: "I'm well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with you."
"If I Harassed Her'" On Tuesday's The View, Joy Behar played on the title of O.J. Simpson's book, If I Did It, to make a quip that presumed Justice Clarence Thomas was guilty of harassing Anita Hill and Behar, as well as Barbara Walters, pressed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the left on why she and other Democrats are not doing more to end the war in Iraq. A frustrated Walters fretted: "The Democrats came in. They were going to try to bring the troops home. They were going to try to end the war. What happened?" Talking about Thomas's new book, My Grandfather's Son, and Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations, Behar offered this snarky remark: "Why is he writing this book? He won basically the round. He's the Supreme Court Justice for life. He should write a book, 'If I Harassed Her.'" Later on the October 2 edition of the ABC daytime show, Walters attacked Pelosi for not doing enough to retreat from Iraq:
BARBARA WALTERS: The Democrats came in. They were going to try to bring the troops home. They were going to try to end the war. What happened? That answer was not enough for the veteran journalist, who brought in Behar to bolster her argument. Walters and Behar both complained that the Democrats' leading candidates allegedly do not support an immediate withdrawal:
WALTERS: Well, but your leading candidates, Joy you- This item was based on two postings, by Justin McCarthy, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org And: newsbusters.org
His Approval Rating' From the October 2 Late Show with David Letterman, the "Top Ten Ways George W. Bush Can Boost His Approval Rating." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com 10. Play comical slide-whistle every time he screws up 9. Release NSA wiretaps of Jessica Biel's hot phone conversations 8. Tell everyone "W" stands for "Whoa, this guy's awesome!" 7. Help O.J. find the real memorabilia 6. Send 20,000 troops to stop Michael Jackson's wedding 5. Devote weekly radio address to discuss what's happening on "The Hills" 4. What do you mean "boost"? Everything's great! 3. Co-star in a movie with a monkey 2. Go on television; Say, "You know what? I did lose in 2000"; Hand over the keys to Gore 1. Appoint blue ribbon commission to find out what happened to the Mets
-- Brent Baker
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