Rush Refers to Murtha as “Genuine Phony Soldier”

Responding to the growing controversy over his claims that members of the military who support U.S. withdrawal from Iraq are “phony soldiers,” Rush Limbaugh today referred to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), a Vietnam veteran, as a “genuine phony soldier.” Limbaugh also falsely claimed that Media Matters for America had taken his original statement out of context — and resorted to distorting his own comments in order to do so.

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September 28, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, Release | Comment 

Fox’s Bill O’Reilly Says His Stereotypes Taken Out of Context

Washington Post

By Paul Farhi

Bill O’Reilly says he thought he was dispelling stereotypes when he told his radio audience last week about his recent trip to Harlem with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Instead, O’Reilly found himself yesterday fighting accusations of racial insensitivity.

During a 35-minute discussion about race relations last Wednesday on his syndicated “Radio Factor,” the pugnacious host repeatedly decried “demeaning” portrayals of African Americans, particularly in hip-hop videos. To illustrate his contention that such images provide a false impression of black culture, he recalled having dinner with Sharpton at Sylvia’s, a famous soul-food restaurant in Harlem:

“I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City,” he said. “It was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks [and has a] primarily black patronship. It was the same. And that’s really what this society is really all about now here in the U.S.A. There’s no difference.”

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September 27, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, News Mentions | Comment 

Bill O’Reilly Says He’s Being Smeared

Associated Press

By David Bauder

NEW YORK (AP) - Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly said Wednesday his critics took remarks he made about a famed Harlem restaurant out of context and “fabricated a racial controversy where none exists.” He criticized the liberal group Media Matters for America as “smear merchants” for publicizing statements he made on his radio show last week.

O’Reilly told his radio audience that he dined with civil rights activist Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s recently and “couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference” between the black-run restaurant and others in New York City.

It was just like a suburban Italian restaurant, he said. “There wasn’t any kind of craziness at all,” he said.

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September 26, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, News Mentions | Comment 

Group Points Out O’Reilly Race Comments

Associated Press

By David Bauder

NEW YORK (AP) — After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly told a radio audience he “couldn’t get over the fact” that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia’s and other restaurants.

“It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun,” he said. “And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

O’Reilly said his fellow patrons were tremendously respectful as he ate dinner with civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

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September 25, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, News Mentions | Comment 

O’Reilly Attacks Media Matters for Posting Harlem Remarks

Fox News Host Riled Over Exposure of Racially Charged Statements

Yesterday, Rick Sanchez, host of CNN’s Out in the Open, reported that Bill O’Reilly attacked Media Matters for America for documenting racially charged comments he made on his nationally syndicated radio program, calling it a “hatchet job.” The prominent conservative cable news and talk radio host is furious that Media Matters has brought his damaging statements to the public’s attention yet again.

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September 25, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, Release | Comment 

Report: Black and White and Re(a)d All Over

Op-Ed Pages Dominated by Right
Unprecedented New Study of U.S. Dailys Shows Conservatives with Distinct Advantage in Syndicated Op-Eds

Report is Available Online at:
http://www.mediamatters.org/reports/oped/

Media Matters for America today released “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns,” a comprehensive and unprecedented analysis of nationally syndicated columnists from nearly 1,400 newspapers or 96 percent of English-language U.S. daily newspapers. Because of the time, labor, and difficulty involved in gathering such a wide scope of detailed information about America’s newspapers, no one has ever before determined exactly where syndicated columnists are published. The report shows that conservative syndicated columnists are carried in far more newspapers, with much greater audience reach than their progressive counterparts, giving them a distinct advantage in the marketplace of ideas.

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September 12, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, Release | Comment 

Is Glenn Beck the Most Annoying Man on TV?

GQ Magazine

Or Does it Only Seem That Way?

By Benjamin Wallace

“Here’s a comment that will get me fired,” Glenn Beck says from behind the custom-made standing desk (bad back) that dominates his tiny CNN office in New York. In the flesh, he is thinner, less pink, and softer-spoken than the close-talking guy on television. Still wearing radio casual—bleach-spotted jeans, Adidas sneakers—from the morning’s three-hour broadcast, he forks down a take-out salad while going over material with one of his writers for tonight’s TV show, which will be devoted largely to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. “This guy makes you have respect for suicide bombers,” Beck says, trying out today’s career-immolating zinger. “At least they’re killing themselves because they believe in something larger.”

“I love that,” says the writer, who stands on the other side of the desk. “And it’s true.”

“Whew,” Beck says. “I can’t wait for the letters we’re going to get.”

On the Glenn Beck spectrum, this is actually pretty tame, but post-Imus, the specter of getting canned for ill-chosen words is much on the minds of everyone in the provoking/offending business. And Beck, with his Headline News gig, has more to fear than most. In the past week alone, Al Franken has gone on CNN to call for Beck’s firing, and Media Matters, the liberal watchdog Web site that led the Imus pile-on, has short-listed Beck for similar treatment.

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September 1, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, News Mentions | Comment