Media Matters 1st Annual "Misinformer" of the Year - O'Reilly

Media Matters for America Announces First Annual 'Misinformer of the Year' Award Winner; MMFA Also Releases 'Top 10 Most Outrageous Statements' Made by Media Figures in 2004

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"Our staff analyzed more than 1000 instances of conservative misinformation captured on our website and tallied the number of times members of the media espoused lies, distortions, or mischaracterizations of fact in order to further the conservative agenda" said David Brock, founder of Media Matters for America, "In the end, Mr. O'Reilly stood out from all the rest."

Since launching in May, Media Matters has identified and corrected more than 70 examples of O'Reilly lying, exaggerating, or distorting the truth (we didn't include comments by O'Reilly that were simply offensive or absurd.) Bill O'Reilly beat out media personalities Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Britt Hume, and Bob Novak for top honors this year. Among O'Reilly's most egregiously false and misleading claims were false assertions that President Bush did not oppose the 911 Commission; repeated declarations of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link; and one instance where O'Reilly fabricated a Paris newspaper to support his claim of a successful French boycott. In other instances, O'Reilly promoted falsehoods about the tax structure, economy, and the American electorate.

"When media figures promote blatant misinformation in the news media, regardless of whether they call it news or commentary, the health of our democracy is threatened," said Brock.

Media Matters for America also compiled a list of the most outrageous statements made by media figures in 2004. The list contains comments ranging from anti-Semitic slurs to attacks on women, gays and lesbians to reprehensible acceptance of the torture at Abu Ghraib. This list, and other examples of Bill O'Reilly's misinformation, are available upon request or at http://www.mediamatters.org.

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http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40999

Excellent choice

I vote Jon Stewart.

50 lbs of fallafal?

A. One hour of unprotected sex with Ann the Man.
B. A home improvement estimate from Mr. Bellvedere along with a free seminar on Jay van Andel's genius. (Michigan jokes...OK.)
C. A cameo spot in Arnold's next movie, where he plays Arnold's secret admirer.
D. A year's supply of suppositories.
E. All of the above.

free phone sex and a new vibrator

Do they always choose right wing sources as their winners? Has anyone on the left ever been exposed for misinformation by MM?

Were all the runner ups RW too?

...is a former conservative goon. He wrote some smears in the 90's, and then sometime in the past several years he's come around to our side. Read his book "Blinded by the Right" for a more complete explanation. Anyway, a lot of liberals don't know whether to trust him. It doesn't really bother me, but I'm pretty sure that his overt shift in affiliation has ended any efforts (on his part) to expose Dems or liberals.

On edit: clarification

I have no need for any partisan group when it come to the media. Either report the whole truth or stay out of media matters.

By your statement to be fair, these guys should be thrown out of media matters. Along with the winner O'Reilly.

They are entertainment only...just like AAR and most other radio vanity programs.

and since they are the propaganda arm of the global capitalists, don't you feel they should be drummed out of media?

I believe in letting the people decide what they decide to listen to, drum out that they despise and in general let the market decide. No dictates, no minority rules, no hate.

So in your post #10 you said people who report only one side should stay out of media, and now you are saying "let the market decide".

Of course when you said stay out of the media, you were describing liberal sites.

When you say "let the market decide", you are talking about radical right wingers.

It is apparent you want to give the rabid right a fair chance but if the site is liberal, they should stay out.

If you know what I mean...

Not to belabor the obvious, but the 'market' for media is advertisers. Only children and simpletons think it's readers, listeners, or viewers. In theory, advertisers pay according to the size and demographics of the audience. When it comes to political content, however, commercial and corporate biases rule. That's not the 'market' I'm interested in having decide what political viewpoints get amplified by the media - not in a (purportedly) 'free' society.


Did someone call for a pizza? :eyes:

it's not fair to those of us who'd like some real discussion of the issues

they should shut-up and entertain... I don't see how some gasbag like Limbaugh can do anything other than spread hate.

Tut-tut

is goung to go nuts. Lol, this is great. He was whining about the left last night and had on a few crazy bible thumpers. Imagine this guy has the audacity to continue this "morals" issue.

vibrations to you, Little Billy.

First of all, I don't need some Faux commentator/entertainer looking out for me.

Secondly, those who would adopt his pretense accept a fox (pun intened) watching over the hen house.

Please name a few of the liberal news sources in the corporate-owned media from which they could choose. That should be easy due to the "librul media", eh??

And if he is pegged as misinformer of the year by media matters, I just may have to start patronzing their site

is as much a journalist as I am. One of the posters here has said that this is entertainment when referring to O'Reilly and Limbaugh. What is entertaining about them? They are spewers of hate. Coulter last night on FOX (I read the transcript and heard it on MMFA) demonized a complete section of the country by stating that the liberals were happy when these bombs and deaths occurred in Iraq. What a hateful dangerous person she is. I wonder where this poster, Hole something finds the entertainment value is there and I would also like to see or hear this hate that the liberals supposedly exude for America.

apple. She says things to illicit a response, much like Stern. When people stop reacting, she will evaporate.

Oh, too bad he just made that up, too...

I tried their website, but I failed to find the lists.

there are fifteen pages of links after links with such doozies as

O'Reilly claimed "you don't see prominent conservatives cursing out Democratic members of Congress"


http://mediamatters.org/archives/search.html?topic=Bill%20O'Reilly

the top 10 list of misinformation and outrageous comments

somewhere in the article.

I'm waiting for him to start compariung himself to Jesus on the cross.

Maybe Jesus really is weeping for O'Reilly.

doesn't quite have the ring of "MediaWhore of the Year," does it?

Well, Mediawhoresonline.com is dead. Long live Mediamatters.org!

it as a pulitzer and be humbled by the award <sarcasm>

...has to be when Ann Coulter went on Hannity's show and proclaimed that the war in Iraq was going "Gloriously."