3 hours and 24 minutes ago
Quick Fact: Fox News' Scott claims hacked emails "suggest some scientists manipulate data on global warming"
On Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott stated that climate scientists' emails that were apparently stolen by hackers from the UK's Climate Research Unit (CRU) suggest that "some scientists manipulate data on global warming." Scott then quoted an email sent by Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, which stated: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e. from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline"; however, the email Scott quoted has been cited by RealClimate.org as "[o]ne example" of "instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded 'gotcha' phrases [being] pulled out of context."
5 hours and 58 minutes ago
Quick Fact: Reviving "born alive" falsehood, Beck claims Obama suggested it's OK to "put a spike in the baby's head"
Glenn Beck falsely claimed that President Obama "suggested that [it] was OK" to "go into those pregnant women and pull the babies out of them and put a spike in the baby's head," echoing the oft-repeated right-wing falsehood that Obama did not support protecting babies who survived botched abortions. In fact, while serving in the state Senate, Obama opposed legislation to amend the Illinois Abortion Law because the amendment threatened abortion rights and was unnecessary since existing law already required doctors to provide medical care for babies who survived abortions.
6 hours and 7 minutes ago
Hannity's not even close on 2009 temperatures
In three separate instances over two weeks, Sean Hannity has baselessly asserted that "this is one of the coldest years on record" to claim that climate change is a "hoax" or not "real." In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), and Britain's Met Office have stated that to date, 2009 is among the warmest years on record.
9 hours and 30 minutes ago
FoxNews.com misleads on FY09 spending to attack Obama as "Spender in Chief"
A graphic posted on FoxNews.com suggested that President Obama is responsible for all of the $3.5 trillion in federal outlays for Fiscal Year 2009. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated that "much" of the 2009 increase in spending "results from legislation enacted in calendar year 2008 in response to turmoil in the housing and financial markets-in particular, $133 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and $291 billion for the estimated costs of placing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship."
9 hours and 45 minutes ago
Quick Fact: Drudge, Washington Times falsely claim allegedly hacked emails show global warming is not real
The Drudge Report suggested that global warming is "junk science," by linking to a Washington Times editorial that falsely claims a series of emails that were reportedly stolen from the UK's Climate Research Unit [CRU] show that global warming is an "unproven theory." In fact, the validity of climate science is not hinged on the contents of these emails, some of which conservative media have taken out of context; reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading scientific body for assessing climate change research, are the product of thousands of scientists worldwide.
November 24, 2009 10:48 pm ET
CBS' Cordes falsely suggests health care bills will not reduce deficits after 10 years
CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes forwarded the Republican suggestion that the House and Senate health care reform bills are a "trillion-dollar scam" because the bills "impos[e] new taxes years before the tax credits would kick in to help Americans buy insurance," and thus would only reduce the deficit in the first decade after enactment. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that both bills would also reduce the deficit beyond the first 10 years.
November 24, 2009 10:45 pm ET
Quick Fact: Which Obama admin official is Hannity falsely claiming "supports forced sterilizations"?
Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Obama has "got" a "guy" in his administration "that supports forced sterilizations." Hannity did not specify which "guy" he was referring to, but has previously leveled this charge at director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Cass Sunstein and White House science and technology adviser John Holdren.
November 24, 2009 9:42 pm ET
NBC lets McCaffrey attack "harmful" Afghanistan timeline without disclosing his DynCorp ties
NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski aired a clip of NBC News military analyst and retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey's criticism of a "definitive exit strategy" from Afghanistan "with a timeline." At no point during the segment did McCaffrey, Miklaszewski, or guest anchor Lester Holt disclose McCaffrey's ties to DynCorp International -- a company under contract to provide support to U.S. bases in Afghanistan for up to five years, as well as to train the Afghanistan National Police and the Ministry of Interior.
November 24, 2009 6:15 pm ET
Quick Fact: Varney claims apparently hacked CRU emails suggest that "scientists are fudging data to make their case for global warming"
Fox News' Stuart Varney touted the emails that were apparently stolen from the UK's Climate Research Unit (CRU), claiming the emails suggested that "scientists are fudging data to make their case for global warming." Varney distorted statements from two of the emails and took them out of context to claim that one showed that "evidence isn't really there" for global warming and the other suggested scientists were "deliberately changing the data to suit your way."
November 24, 2009 4:18 pm ET
Fox trumpets Breitbart's dubious ACORN document dump claim
On Fox & Friends, host Brian Kilmeade advanced Andrew Breitbart's dubious allegations against ACORN by reporting that a "private investigator" saw the group "dumping thousands of sensitive documents into the trash outside their San Diego office ... after California's attorney general launched an investigation into the group." But Breitbart, who hyped the document dump as a "scandal" on his website, BigGovernment.com, and asserted that the documents are "very vital to that investigation," has not shown that the discarded documents are in fact vital to the investigation or related to the reported scope of the investigation.
November 24, 2009 1:38 pm ET
McCaughey advances falsehood that task force would limit preventive care under health reform bill
In a November 24 New York Post column, Betsy McCaughey suggested that both "women -- and men" would "lose" under the Senate health care bill because preventive care would be limited by the US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines, and quoted medical professor James Thrall stating: "I fear we are entering an era of deliberate decisions where we choose to trade people's lives for money." But insurers operating under the Senate health care reform bill are not required to adopt recommendations against preventive screening, only to adopt those recommendations supporting preventive screening.
November 24, 2009 1:37 pm ET
Morris again uses Fox News to raise funds
On Fox News' Hannity, Fox News contributor Dick Morris touted "the work we're trying to do through DickMorris.com" to oppose health care reform and instructed viewers to "go there and help us." Morris has repeatedly used his frequent appearances on Fox News to raise money for conservative political organizations, including those in which he has a financial interest, a practice that also has been followed by Fox News' Mike Huckabee.
November 24, 2009 12:48 pm ET
Right-wing media run with false Wash. Times claim that Republicans were "not invited" to state dinner
The Drudge Report and FoxNews.com have seized on a Washington Times article that falsely suggests the Obama administration excluded Republican lawmakers from its first state dinner on November 24, honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In fact, as the Times itself reported, Obama invited several Republicans, including the House and Senate Minority leaders, and some are declining to attend.
November 24, 2009 12:33 pm ET
Quick Fact: Fox Nation falsely characterized reportedly stolen CRU emails as "Global Warming's Waterloo"
Under the headline "Global Warming's Waterloo?," The Fox Nation linked to a November 23 Gateway Pundit post asserting that "Senator James Inhofe [R-OK] will call for an investigation into the Climate Research Unit (CRU) emails that showed that global warming scientists were deliberately mainpulating [sic] and hiding information from the public to further their cause." But Gateway Pundit's claim that the emails -- which were reportedly stolen by a hacker -- "showed that global warming scientists were deliberately mainpulating [sic] and hiding information," and consequently Fox Nation's headline suggesting that these emails represent a "Waterloo" for climate change, are false; in fact, numerous climate change experts have explained that such a characterization is predicated on reading the emails out of context and distorting their scientific language.
November 24, 2009 8:33 am ET
Quick Fact: WSJ's McGurn forwards misleading attacks against Senate health bill
In a November 24 Wall Street Journal column, News Corp. vice president William McGurn wrote of the Senate health care reform bill: "Conservatives and Republicans rattle off any number of objections to the bill: It would bust the budget; it would force many families to replace private coverage with government; it would subsidize abortion; it would ration care, etc. These are all variations on the major argument: It's not going to work."
November 24, 2009 12:57 am ET
Beck and Horowitz falsely claim Dems are implementing mammogram recommendations as part of "a rationing system"
On Fox News' Glenn Beck, both Glenn Beck and conservative author David Horowitz falsely claimed that Democrats are responsible for recent United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations that fewer women under 50 receive regular mammograms, citing them as proof that Democrats are, in Horowitz's words, "imposing a rationing system." In fact, these guidelines were promulgated by an independent panel of medical professionals -- all of whom were reportedly seated or selected during the Bush administration -- whose recommendations are not legally binding and about which President Obama's Health and Human Services Secretary said: "They do not set federal policy and they don't determine what services are covered by the federal government."
November 24, 2009 12:22 am ET
In an outrageous and baseless smear, Hannity claims Sunstein "wants to... force sterilizations"
Citing no evidence whatsoever, Fox News host Sean Hannity baselessly claimed that Cass Sunstein, director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, "wants to... force sterilizations." Hannity has previously echoed other right-wing commentators in offering similar, false attacks on White House science and technology adviser John Holdren.
November 23, 2009 11:50 pm ET
Beck's "brand new reality" on climate change relies on distorting apparently stolen emails
Glenn Beck touted climate scientists' emails that were apparently stolen by hackers from the UK's Climate Research Unit (CRU) -- emails Beck claimed "someone released" -- to assert the existence of a "brand new reality" in which the fundamental legitimacy of global warming is in doubt. But in advancing his claims, Beck distorted the emails and took them out of context to suggest they indicated that climate change was a "scam," ignoring climate scientists' subsequent statements to the contrary.
November 23, 2009 9:22 pm ET
Quick Fact: O'Reilly claims health bill would "force all Americans... to fund, through their taxpayer dollars, abortions"
Bill O'Reilly claimed that the House and Senate versions of the health care bill contain an "abortion option" that "so many Democrats want it go through, which would force all Americans... to fund, through their taxpayer dollars, abortions."
November 23, 2009 4:31 pm ET
Quick Fact: Limbaugh includes election winners Begich and Franken while listing senators who he claims received "no votes"
On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh mentioned Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and the "senator who replaced Ted Stevens" -- Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) -- while listing senators who he said joined the Senate despite having received "no votes" and who also voted on November 21 to begin debate on the health care reform bill. In fact, both Begich and Franken won their Senate seats in general elections in 2008.
