Tunnel Vision…
NewsBusters’ Noel Sheppard notes that Rachel Maddow issued an apology for saying there’s no preamble to the Constitution…
As NewsBusters reported, Maddow on Thursday ridiculed House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) for claiming during that day’s “House Call” rally the historic phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident” came from the Preamble to the Constitution.
In so doing, Maddow gaffed herself by claiming there isn’t a Preamble to the Constitution.
This is why nobody outside of ideologues takes NewsBusters at face value any more than they take News Hounds at face value. Or AIM. Or Media Matters. Or the MRC. All Sheppard is concerned with is Maddow’s gaffe. He isn’t at all concerned with Boehner looking like a doofus for quoting the Declaration of Independence while holding up a copy of the Constitution and incorrectly attributing the quote to that document. Boehner more than deserved ridicule, just not the ridicule Maddow gave him.
Retratction: Ok, I blew it. I didn’t see Sheppard’s piece on noting it came from the Declaration of Independence. For the life of me I don’t know how I missed it since I read that article several times looking for it. Guess I had my own case of tunnel vision. In any case I owe both Sheppard and NewsBusters an apology.
November 7, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Spud reads Newsbusters so we don’t have to.
So let’s see, Sheppard commends Rachel by a.) claiming she must have been cowed into it by Newsbusters, b.) using her straight-up correction as an excuse to bag on KO, and c.) still ignoring Boehner’s gaffe. Nice work.
November 7, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Um, the whole point of the website is to point out media bias, not politicians’ stupidity. As laudable goal as the latter is, it’s generally unwise to discredit yourself by making a grade-school error in the process. I’m not defending Boehner, and I’m not claiming Newsbusters to be without fault, but they reported what happened. I’ll also give them a cookie for giving the correction a new entry, rather than updating the existing one, thus making it more obvious. Maybe they always do that, so, half a cookie.
November 7, 2009 at 1:34 pm
The only reasonable non-ideological media monitoring group I’ve found is George Mason’s Center for Media and Public Affairs, the Robert Lichter run group. It’s right-of-center, for the most part, but not overly so. Link here: http://www.cmpa.com/index.htm
But they don’t turn out enough material to do too much good.
Re Newsbusters: I’ll (partially) defend Sheppard here by noting that they monitor the press and not Congress. Although, let’s be honest, if Boehner were a Democrat they’d notice his error.
November 7, 2009 at 1:42 pm
– But they don’t turn out enough material to do too much good. –
The problem with outfits like Newsbusters is that they seem to have a quota to fill. When you have a clearly-liberal pundit saying ‘liberal’ things, it’s not worthy of note. I don’t care what Eleanor Clift says, you know where she’s coming from, so stop making a big deal of it. Seems like they used to call her out a lot when she was on the McLaughilin Group.
When you have space to fill, you find something whether it exists or not. Like manure, for you farmers out there.
November 7, 2009 at 1:58 pm
..And they were only-too-happy to point out Obama’s mess-up. Last I checked, he’s not a media figure.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-bates/2009/11/06/obama-gives-shout-out-congressional-medal-honor-winner-who-isnt
Not that the criticism isn’t valid, but…
November 7, 2009 at 2:03 pm
If Sheppard is going to call a gaffe on somebody calling a gaffe, it’s disengenuous to focus solely on the host’s mistake, while pretending the Congressman’s mistake doesn’t exist. But my biggest beef with Sheppard is all the extraneous lib-bashing trappings: “high and mighty”, “arrogant”, “Olbermann would have handled it terribly.” It makes him come off as what he is…a screeching ideologue.
November 7, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Just don’t call a giraffe on me, OK?
November 7, 2009 at 2:18 pm
– call a giraffe –
Early for happy hour?
November 7, 2009 at 2:18 pm
When you have a clearly-liberal pundit saying ‘liberal’ things, it’s not worthy of note.
Agree. Stick to the straight news reporters, a dying breed on cable admittedly.
Wow, Navy is beating Notre Dame 21-7. A bunch of 200 pound and under kids with guts and heart who take advanced calculus going against 300 pound topflight HS recruits who major in the history of the spoon. I love it.
November 7, 2009 at 2:26 pm
- call a giraffe -
I’ll have what she’s having.
November 7, 2009 at 2:42 pm
What a total bunch of b.s. To compare Newsbusters to completely dishonest organizations like Media Matters and the ones on the left.
Media Matters and the others on the left constantly lie, distort the truth and other b.s. Thats why Keith screws up so much. He gets his show from crazy frindge organizations like those.
A perfect example is when Bill was talking about his increase in ratings a few years ago. Bill specifically points out how his ratings are up from the previous month (on the shows he was there for). So of course Media Matters jumps on then and then Keith runs with it. What do they do? They show the this months ratings and the months before and “claim” Bill lied because his ratings show that his numbers were actually DOWN compared to last month. That’s just one way how they constantly lie and distort things.
And what’s even worse is to have Newsbusters compared to a site thats run by little bloggers who have no idea about anything in the broadcast business. They lie more than even Media Matters. They’ve tried to ban Johnny Dollar from replying to their lies because he had constantly busted them time after time after time and they couldn’t take it anymore.
November 7, 2009 at 4:14 pm
What a total bunch of b.s. To compare Newsbusters to completely dishonest organizations like Media Matters and the ones on the left.
Don’t look now but your ideology is showing. I’ve read enough NewsBusters articles to know they cherry pick their stuff and slant it if they can. That’s no better than Media Matters. So the comparison is dead on.
November 7, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Not all NewsBusters articles are of this type. Some are pretty accurate. But the same can be said for Media Matters and, yes, even News Hounds gets it right on occasion, though that’s more of a freak coincidence, where their complaint is an accurate one, than an attempt at being fair.
November 7, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Spud,
Firstly, it’s called “news”busters not “congressman”busters. Second, Maddow looked more like an idiot because she was making fun of someone for making a mistake. Pot meet kettle. Also, it’s more likely Boehner made an honest mistake while giving a speech. Maddow, on the other hand, should have made darn sure she got everything correct since she was making fun of someone for getting something incorrect.
Finally, most people get more confused with what particular phrases are in the DOI compared to the Constitution. However, I would think most people realize there is a preamble to the Constitution since most of us had to memorize it as kids.
November 7, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Spud, you owe Newsbusters an apology and retraction.
Their original article on this did point out Boehner’s error, more than once.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/11/06/maddow-wrongly-claims-constitution-doesnt-have-preamble
November 7, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Great catch BigRed!
He’ll come back with some lame excuse that Boehner should have gotten the same treatment they gave Maddow. Except it was Maddow who was being the smart @ss idiot that got egg on her face. Her just made a mistake.
But then what would you expect for someone that acts like MRC and Newsbusters are like the totally dishonest and shameful sites NewsHounds and Made Up Media Matters. But nobody should expect reality from Media Matters with its George Soros funding.
November 8, 2009 at 10:20 am
Star, Spud is very, shall I say, “fair & balanced”. This was simply an error, and actually a pretty easy one to make. I expect he’ll correct his mistake, unlike any of those left wing hatchets sites would.
November 8, 2009 at 10:38 am
Red, you’re wasting your breath. Star has BSCS: Busting Spud’s Chops Syndrome. It’s a compulsion with him, like Tourettes.
November 8, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Johnny Dollar does another great job busting those flat out lying hate filled Blue Blogs yet again:
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/hyu279407418.html
November 9, 2009 at 5:40 am
BigRed is right. I didn’t see it. I must’ve read that article three times looking for it and I just didn’t see it. Bad move on my part…
November 9, 2009 at 10:45 am
Spud, thank you for manning up. If the douchebags on cable news could issue retractions in the same manner when they make mistakes, they would earn a lot more respect.