In an article from Mediamatters.org, they make note of a graph that CNN displayed on air on April 18, 2008. This graph showed “2007 Total Income” of the remaining presidential candidates, George and Laura Bush, and Dick and Lynne Cheney. The graph showed Sen. John McCain only earning $405 thousand. In comparison, it showed the Clintons earning $20.4 million, the Obamas with $4.2 million, the Cheneys with $3 million, and the Bushs with $936 thousand. While the statistics are correct, McCain is the only one who does not have his income combined with their spouse’s. Cindy McCain’s income was not released to the public, but she is estimated to be worth over $100 million. This would put her net worth well above all of the others shown.
During the April 17 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Dick Morris claimed that Sen. Hillary Clinton gave money to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) while she was head of the New World Foundation. At the time, the PLO was classified as a terrorist organization. However, according to a Washington Times article from Sept. 19, 1999, the New World Foundation gave money to Grassroots International. Grassroots International, in turn, donated the money to other groups who had weak links to the PLO.
It is rare that “The View” would provide a major bit of bias towards the election. However, some of the comments made recently on the show are very questionable. Sherri Shepherd went as far as to compare Reverend Jeremiah Wright, known for his religious speeches and links to Barack Obama, to Martin Luther King Jr. She notes that King once predicted that America “will put black people in a concentration camp.” This is quite a misquote of the Reverend. King was speaking on the concentration camps that Japanese were forced into during World War II. His point was that he was not just for equality for African-Americans, but all Americans. Shepherd made quite a stretch to equate the two, and was very uncalled-for.
The Feb 28 issue of New York Times has brought up the issue of whether or not presidential candidate John McCain is eligible for the Presidency because he was born on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone. Carl Hulse’s claim is that the constitution says only a “natural-born citizen” can be president. His interpretation is that since McCain was not born on US soil, he is ineligible. However, he was born on a US Military base from two American citizens. Not many people would argue that McCain shouldn’t be eligible.
Tim Graham of Newsbusters on March 4, 2008 noticed the extremely small amount of media coverage over Barack Obama’s relationship with Antoin Rezko. Obama, who is currently in a tight race with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic party nomination for president. Rezko is waiting on trial for influence peddling in state government. In 2005, Rezko bought a large parcel of land on the same day next to Obama. The parcel bought by Rezko was sold for over $600,000. This land needed to be owned by Obama in order to buy the home that Obama wanted. Rezko was indicted for wire fraud in 2006.
Media Matters noticed during the March 2 episode of NBC’s Meet the Press, host Tim Russert ignored a statement questioning McCain’s acceptance of an endorsement from John Hagee. Hagee is a Pastor in Texas who has been on record denouncing women, Islam, Catholics, and homosexuality. However, Russert repeatedly attacked Barack Obama over an endorsement from Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan has made many questionable comments throughout his tenure with the Nation of Islam.
The Huffington Post reports that Canadian government officials are up in arms over Obama telling potential voters in Ohio the opposite of what he assured them. The media has played up, and continues to do so, Obama’s plan to remove America from NAFTA. However, mainstream media has not picked up on Canada’s complaints. Obama has been trying to gain votes by telling factory workers he will remove us from NAFTA and place tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports.
Ken Shepard of Newsbusters on Feb. 25, 2008 notices a few interesting pictures on Newsweek.com. He shows two pictures taken from the top stories of John McCain, Republican candidate for president, and Raul Castro, brother of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. McCain has a scowl on his face in his picture, while Raul Castro is shown flashing a “peace” sign. It almost seems like Newsweek is trying to give a subliminal message that McCain is not as nice as he appears. However, Raul Castro’s photograph makes him seem like a wonderfully nice person who is committed to making things right in Cuba.
Oren Elliott of Newsvine discovers on Feb 26, 2008 the sudden interest in Ron Paul now that he has a tight race for his Congressional seat. Ron Paul is one of three candidates left in the Republican Party for President. However, you hardly ever hear anything about him. He is not a true conservative, therefore, the right-wing doesn’t like him, but he isn’t anything near a liberal, so the left-wing doesn’t like him either. CNN ignored the 11% that he received in the Iowa primary (which was only one percent behind John McCain). National Public Radio never gave Paul much airtime for the past few months, but now that he is in a close race, they seem to be answering many questions about him.
Media Matters reports that on March 3, Caroline Shively of Fox News stated that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was quoted saying he has been a Christian for two decades. However, no reports have shown Obama saying he had only been Christian for twenty years. He has repeatedly said that he has always been a Christian and at no time did he ever practice the Muslim faith. He was raised by his mother who has always been a Christian.
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