An open letter from Media Matters to our readers: 2006 in review

Since January 1, 2006, Media Matters has documented and corrected more than 2,700 instances of conservative misinformation -- and well over 6,000 since we launched in May 2004. Here's a look at some of this year's highlights.

Debunking election-season misinformation

As typically occurs during an election year, there was a marked increase in conservative misinformation leading into the November 7 midterm elections -- and Media Matters was there to correct it.

The week before the election, we compiled the most common election-related falsehoods and talking points, including that Americans favor Republicans over Democrats on national security, despite a growing body of public polling data that indicated that this was no longer the case. Media Matters repeatedly pointed out the actual data, noting that Americans trusted Democrats more than Republicans when it came to handling Iraq -- and that Democrats had eliminated what was once a 50-point Republican advantage on terrorism. The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both ran detailed articles about the Democrats' gains on security issues, and other news organizations and TV pundits began making routine note of the public's preference for Democrats.

Our monitoring and transcribing of The Rush Limbaugh Show allowed us to quickly post the audio and full transcript of Limbaugh's false attack on actor Michael J. Fox, who did a campaign advertisement for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. Limbaugh claimed that Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, either didn't take his medication prior to filming the ad endorsing McCaskill for her support of stem cell research or was "acting" and "exaggerating" the symptoms of his disease for dramatic effect. Limbaugh's attack backfired, drawing significant national attention to the Fox ad and raising the profile of the stem cell issue.

In other tightly contested congressional races, Media Matters took media outlets to task for ignoring evidence that Sen. George Allen (R-VA) may have known the meaning of the derogatory North African word "macaca" that he used to describe a volunteer for Democratic challenger Jim Webb, giving free air time to a Republican National Committee ad against Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. that critics -- including former Republican senator and Secretary of Defense William Cohen -- deemed racist, and reporting on an RNC ad attacking Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown for not paying an outstanding tax bill without noting that the state of Ohio had determined the ad was false.

Additionally, when VoteVets.org aired TV ads criticizing Republican Senate candidates for opposing a Democratic amendment that would have increased National Guard funding for body armor, the group came under attack by the website FactCheck.org for allegedly airing false allegations. With TV stations under Republican pressure to pull the ads, Media Matters proved that FactCheck.org was itself wrong in its analysis.

Media Matters was also busy in the aftermath of the midterm election. For example, in the days after the Democratic victory, we documented the prevalence of gender stereotypes in the media's coverage of incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as the media's suggestion that President Bush and incoming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had responded to the election by espousing "conciliation" toward Democrats, despite evidence to the contrary.

Unraveling baseless attempts to cast Republican corruption as bipartisan

Another major source of misinformation heading into the election pertained to the issue of corruption, which exit polls ultimately found to be the most important issue for voters.

From the beginning of the year, when the scandal surrounding disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff started to garner increased media attention, conservatives sought to convince the media to cast the issue of corruption as a bipartisan problem. Media Matters noted that The Washington Post falsely asserted Republican Rep. Roy Blunt's (MO) wife did not lobby Congress, and the Post issued a correction. When Post ombudsman Deborah Howell falsely asserted in her column that politicians in both parties received campaign contributions from Abramoff, when in fact no Democrats had, Howell was forced to correct the error, but not before the Post shut down the comments section of its blog because it was inundated with demands for a retraction.

Media attempts to suggest Democrats and Republicans were equally corrupt went far beyond the Abramoff scandal. By Election Day, four Republican congressmen -- former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (TX), Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (CA), Rep. Mark Foley (FL) and Rep. Bob Ney (OH) -- had resigned amid various ethics probes and criminal investigations, yet in the wake of Foley's resignation, media figures failed to mention the pattern of Republican resignations, falsely claimed a Democrat had also resigned, and even misidentified disgraced Republicans as Democrats. Media Matters also documented that major media outlets covered allegations that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV) improperly reported a land deal in which he made $700,000, while largely ignoring a land deal in which House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) made nearly three times that much, even though unlike Hastert, Reid was not alleged to have taken official government action that may have enhanced the property's value. In October, we issued an extensive special report on the scandal surrounding Foley -- who sent sexually explicit electronic communications to underage former congressional pages -- and the House Republican leadership's alleged cover-up of Foley's behavior, countering conservative attempts to dismiss or downplay the significance of the scandal.

Exposing the falsehood-laden Path to 9/11

In September, Disney subsidiary ABC aired The Path to 9/11, a fabricated, inaccurate, and misleading portrayal of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Written by a conservative activist, the film forwarded conservative attempts to blame former President Bill Clinton for the 9-11 attacks, while letting President Bush off the hook. Media Matters responded with a variety of actions, including a letter to the president of ABC, a press release calling for Disney and ABC to cancel the film, and an action alert urging our readers to contact Disney and ABC. While the film did air, Media Matters' efforts, in conjunction with those of the Center for American Progress' Think Progress weblog, John Aravosis' AMERICAblog, and numerous others -- caused ABC to edit out some of the most egregious scenes and acknowledge that the film contained other "fictionalized scenes."

Moreover, when Media Matters discovered that educational publishing giant Scholastic Inc. had partnered with ABC to distribute teaching materials based on the movie, we fact-checked the materials. After we found they contained falsehoods such as the suggestion that Iraq was a "place[] ... that played a role in the events of 9/11," we urged Media Matters' activists -- a list that has grown by 274 percent this year -- to contact Scholastic, prompting the company to pull the materials and disassociate itself from the movie within 48 hours.

Weeks later, when Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace hosted a contentious interview with former President Bill Clinton, in which Wallace asked Clinton why he failed to "do more" during his presidency to put Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden "out of business," Media Matters debunked Wallace's false claim that Fox News Sunday had also "ask[ed] plenty of questions" to Bush administration officials about their failure to catch bin Laden.

Forcing media to correct false reports

A number of corrections followed Media Matters' documentation of false news reports in 2006. The New York Times corrected stories following Media Matters items, including a report which falsely claimed Sen. Joe Lieberman had never "utter[ed] the words 'stay the course' " with regard to the Iraq war, and an article that erroneously asserted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had criticized her Democratic colleagues for "taking on issues that arouse conservatives and turn out Republican voters." The Times even had to issue a correction to a correction, after Media Matters explained that the Times had managed to twice misrepresent a proposal by Clinton and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to limit the control of U.S. seaports to companies meeting certain criteria.

In addition to major news outlets, Fox News' Brit Hume corrected a story on Bush's warrantless surveillance program, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson apologized to the ACLU, and even Fox's Bill O'Reilly apologized for misquoting Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), following criticism from Media Matters.

Media Matters establishes first state-based office in Colorado

In addition to the major successes of our national office, Media Matters also expanded in 2006, establishing our first state-based initiative: Colorado Media Matters. Not only did Colorado Media Matters effectively translate our national mission by refuting over 350 instances of conservative misinformation in the Colorado media during its first three months, it also served to fundamentally transform the statewide debate during the election season.

Among its more prominent achievements, Colorado Media Matters was first to challenge the media's parroting of right-wing smears regarding Democratic Governor-elect Bill Ritter's plea-bargaining record as Denver district attorney. Colorado Media Matters consistently corrected each report that repeated the conservative distortion without letting news consumers know that Ritter's record was similar to the national average, and even communicated directly with editors and reporters, urging them to balance their coverage. Within short order, corrections were issued and the reporting started to change. A major distortion, that Ritter was soft on crime -- which could have become the conventional wisdom with the help of the media -- was averted.

Additionally, when a public radio host failed to challenge GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's outrageous claim that 70 percent of all African-American pregnancies end in abortion, Colorado Media Matters activated its marketing and communications team -- and worked with such key in-state partners as Colorado Confidential, ProgressNow and the blogosphere -- to ensure that both the public and the mainstream media were informed. Colorado Media Matters set the record straight, and the media -- along with some influential Colorado legislators -- followed. Without Colorado Media Matters there to listen to key broadcasts like the Colorado Public Radio show on which Beauprez made his claim, chances are that the distortion would have gone unnoticed and unchallenged. As it happened, the remark made front-page news throughout the state, Beauprez was forced to apologize, and the gaffe was mentioned frequently in subsequent reporting about his campaign's shortcomings.

As the year draws to a close, we want to thank our readers for helping hold the media's feet to the fire, and we look forward to redoubling our efforts for honest and accurate reportage and commentary in 2007.