Media Matters

Transition

Amid rumors of Clinton nomination, Matthews brings back '90s circus
On Hardball, Chris Matthews used reports that President-elect Barack Obama might nominate Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state to "rehash" 1990s-era smears and scandals involving the Clintons. Matthews invoked Linda Tripp and hosted Rep. Dan Burton, whom Matthews asked to discuss the false accusation that Vince Foster was murdered, and Christopher Hitchens. Read More

That was then ... Matthews lauded "experience" of Bush's Cabinet picks in 2001, but says Obama's selection of prior administration vets is "crap"

Media figures continue to suggest Clinton will pursue rogue agenda if named secretary of state

2008 Election

Win or lose on Election Day, Republicans and conservatives hold majority on Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday
On the first two Sundays following the November 4 elections, in which a Democrat took the White House and the party added to its majority in the House and Senate, conservatives and Republicans dominated post-election analysis on both Fox News Sunday and Face the Nation -- a pattern that is consistent with their guest lineups in the first weeks after the November 2004 elections. Read More

Flashback: If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative: How the Right Continues to Dominate the Sunday Talk Shows

County Fair: Why did Sunday talk shows this week revolve around the GOP's future?

Newsweek asserted as fact that America "remains right of center," but a former Wash. Times editor disagrees
Newsweek's Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe repeated the assertion previously made by Newsweek colleague Jon Meacham that the country "remains right of center." Thomas and Wolffe cited as evidence exit polling that showed more respondents identifying themselves as "conservative" than as "liberal." But political scientists dispute the reliability of voters' identification with political ideologies, and the former editor of The Washington Times' editorial page asserted "the only problem" with conservatives claiming America is a "center-right" country is that "[i]t isn't true. Or at least, not anymore." Read More

"Center-right" myth archive

Radio

Women, minorities, autistic children: Conservative radio's vitriol not reserved for Obama
As Media Matters for America documented, the nationwide network of conservative radio hosts -- personalities without the national prominence of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh -- engaged in an all-out effort to foment hate and suspicion of Barack Obama by participating actively in an echo chamber of smears and falsehoods about the primary candidate and then Democratic nominee. But these same radio hosts were by no means discerning in their vitriol and did not save their ire solely for Obama. Immigrants, female politicians (and women in general), the LGBT community, the poor and homeless, minorities, progressives, unions, college students, and even autistic children were targets of these radio personalities' invective. Read more

More information on conservative radio