Here are today's news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or 'read more' to read the entirety of each story.
Fox's "Straight News" Campaigns For Estate Tax Repeal
While guest hosting Fox's "straight news" program, Special Report, Shannon Bream did a report suggesting that the estate tax hurts small businesses and therefore causes the economy to hemorrhage jobs. But the report failed to mention that a vanishingly small number of businesses and individuals are subject to the estate tax. Read More
Lila Rose Pushes Falsehood That Abortion Is How Indiana Planned Parenthood "Makes Money"
Appearing on Fox News to push her most recent attack on Planned Parenthood, Lila Rose claimed that abortions are how Planned Parenthood of Indiana "makes money." In fact, abortions account for only an estimated 16 percent of its total annual revenue in 2010. Read More
Seeing Red: After Decrying Communist Name-Calling, Beck Repeatedly Smeared His Opponents As Communists
In a January 2009 promo for his Fox News show shortly before it debuted, Glenn Beck claimed that he was "tired of the politics of left and right. It's about right and wrong. We argue back and forth -- 'If you haven't voted for the donkey, you're just a hatemonger.' The other side -- 'Oh, those donkeys trying to turn us into communist Russia.' Stop!" But despite this professed disgust with communist name-calling, Beck proceeded to use his Fox News show to relentlessly smear people and groups as Communists, Marxists, and Socialists. Read More
Glenn Beck's Top 5 Moments Invoking Violence As A Response To "Progressives"
Glenn Beck's tenure at Fox News was marked by exceedingly violent rhetoric as he obsessively invoked violence as a possible response to "progressives." Here are five of the worst examples. Read More
Beck's Golden Ticket: Gold Sellers Stayed Loyal While Other Advertisers Fled
Even as scores of advertisers abandoned Glenn Beck's Fox News show, it continued to attract sellers of gold and other precious metals. Meanwhile, Beck used his show to tout gold ownership as a way to "be prepared." Read More
Glenn Beck's Top 5 Failed Predictions
Glenn Beck has claimed: "I have been given the gift, the blessing, or the curse" to see "slightly over the horizon" and said that on his "big predictions, we have about a 90 percent accuracy rate." But Beck's ability to see "slightly over the horizon" certainly isn't a gift, given how wrong his bizarre predictions often are. With that said, Media Matters presents the top five failed Beck predictions from his time on Fox News. Read More
Glenn Beck's Top 5 Worst Smears
In more than two years on Fox News, Glenn Beck has repeatedly smeared those with which he disagrees. Media Matters presents a selection of Beck's worst smears. Read More
"They Think You're Stupid": Glenn Beck's Manipulation Of His Audience
Glenn Beck frequently pitted his Fox News audience against his foes, telling his viewers that progressives and the media "think you're stupid." Beck also praised his viewers' intelligence while attempting to sell them on his theories, claiming that his audience "will change the course of a nation." Read More
The 50 Worst Things Glenn Beck Said On Fox News
In light of Glenn Beck's transition from Fox News, Media Matters for America recalls the 50 worst things Beck has said on Fox. Read More
Glenn Beck's Perpetual Self-Promotion Machine
Throughout his career on Fox News, Glenn Beck shamelessly used the platform to promote a variety of his own ventures outside Fox News. Both on his own show and in guest appearances on other shows, Beck promoted his books, tours, subscriber-only Web content, and the Restoring Honor and Restoring Courage rallies. Read More
Adopting GOP Talking Point, Fox Claims That Obama Wasn't Involved In Default Crisis Talks
Following President Obama's Wednesday press conference in which he chided Congress for failing to resolve the default crisis, Fox News immediately began echoing the GOP's bogus attack that the president has been "AWOL" or disengaged from the debate over solving the default crisis. In fact, President Obama has been involved from the beginning and has repeatedly met with members of Congress from both parties to negotiate a solution. Read More
Glenn Beck's Obsession With Slavery
In the past two years, Glenn Beck has repeatedly invoked slavery to attack President Obama, progressives, and progressive policies, among other things. Here is a sampling. Read More
Glenn Beck's Top 5 Least Credible Sources
During his time at Fox News, Glenn Beck regularly turned to disreputable sources to back-up his wild and unfounded conspiracy theories. Here are five of Beck's least credible sources. Read More
Parents Shouldn't Trust Beck To Educate Their Kids
Glenn Beck has said he is leaving Fox News in part to "target the youth" and pitch his distinctive brand of right-wing misinformation to a younger demographic. But Beck's long history of misleading his viewers demonstrates why no one should trust him to educate his or her children. Read More
The Glenn Beck Shopping Network
Glenn Beck leaves behind a dubious ethical legacy: On his Fox show, he would promote companies with which he had a financial relationship, but without disclosing that relationship to his viewers. He also used the program as a forum to nudge viewers toward buying products like gold and a library's worth of books. Read More
Glenn Beck's Top 5 Most Inflammatory Moments
In more than two years on Fox News, Glenn Beck inundated his viewers with violent, inflammatory rhetoric. Media Matters presents a selection of his worst offenses. Read More
Conservative Media Shout "Class Warfare" To Defend Tax Breaks On Corporate Jets
The right-wing media responded with outrage after President Obama called on Congress to eliminate tax breaks on corporate jets in order to help stave off a default crisis -- accusing Obama of waging "class warfare." Read More
