How convincing is the news media??

September 16, 2008
Volume 2, Number 20
Nets Peddling Anti-Palin Lies
In their scramble to discredit Sarah Palin, news networks are now citing left-wing falsehoods as fact. Last Monday, MSNBC's new far-left host Rachel Maddow misrepresented Palin with an out-of-context clip of the Alaska governor speaking in church. "[Palin] said that the commander-in-chief for our side in the Iraq war is a mighty general who's initials are G-O-D," Maddow scoffed. "She's asserting that the [Iraq] war is part of God's plan!"
Three days later, ABC anchor Charles Gibson pushed the "holy war" line in his interview with Palin: "You said recently, in your old church, ‘Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.'...Are we fighting a holy war?" According to the ABCNews.com transcript, Palin protested — "I don't know if that was my exact quote" — but her complaint was omitted from the interview. [Audio/video (1:15): Windows Media (4.71 MB) and MP3 audio (357 kB)]
The governor explained she was merely paraphrasing Lincoln's words: "Pray not that God be on our side, but pray instead that we be found on God's side." Yet Gibson stuck with his initial interpretation: "But you went on and said, 'There is a plan and it is God's plan.'"
Gibson and Maddow are simply wrong. Here is what Palin said at the Wasilla Assembly of God church on June 8, 2008: "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for: that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan. So bless them with your prayers, your prayers of protection over our soldiers."
Similarly, back on September 4, CNN's Soledad O'Brien cited "a lot of e-mails" when she berated a McCain spokeswoman about how Palin, the mother of a baby with Down's Syndrome, supposedly slashed spending for special needs students: "She's not fighting [on behalf of disabled children], she's cut the budget by 62 percent since she came into office." [Audio/video (1:10): Windows Media (4.56 MB) and MP3 audio (339 kB)]
That's another fabrication. On Monday, FactCheck.org included O'Brien's claim as an example of "Sliming Palin." The facts: "Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent....In fact, she increased funding and signed a bill that will triple per-pupil funding over three years for special needs students with high-cost requirements."