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Media Matters for America

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Coulter compounds falsehoods in "point-by-point " response to Media Matters ' fact-check of GuiltyToday

In a January 7 article on the conservative website Newsmax.com, purporting to provide a "point-by-point" response to Media Matters for America's recent analysis documenting numerous falsehoods in her new book, Ann Coulter simply compounded the falsehoods.

Coulter's new source still doesn't support her claim that liberals "immediately praised" hoaxers for staging hate crimes

Media Matters noted that Coulter's claim in Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America that two black Duke University students who engaged in a hoax by hanging a black doll from a noose were "immediately praised" by "liberals" was not supported by the sources she cited. In her Newsmax response, Coulter defended herself by falsely suggesting that Media Matters had actually faulted her for not citing any sources for her claim. In the Newsmax piece, Coulter wrote:

"Just because something is not footnoted does not make it false. I am one of the few writers who includes footnotes as service to my readers. "But as long as you ask, among the praise for the pe

O'Reilly again falsely claimed that Army Field Manual bans making "any captured person uncomfortable in any way"Today

On the January 6 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly again falsely claimed that the Army Field Manual "says, quote, 'You are not to make any captured person uncomfortable in any way.' " In fact, it does not say this; as Media Matters for America has noted, the Army Field Manual includes an entire section on "Interrogation Operations," as well as a chapter listing and describing "Approach Techniques and Termination Strategies" for use in interrogations of detainees, several of which make detainees "uncomfortable."

These techniques include the "

Fox's Smith falsely suggested Obama stimulus plan will "cut taxes on people who don't pay taxes"Today

Revisiting the common myth from the presidential campaign that President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts would go to "people who don't pay taxes," Fox News Studio B host Shepard Smith falsely suggested that a $500 individual tax credit, included in Obama's proposed economic recovery plan, would benefit people who don't currently pay taxes. During the January 6 edition of Studio B, Smith asked Sen. John Ensign (R-NV): "Senator, the president-elect wants a big economic stimulus package ready to sign as soon as he take office. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 billion over two years, $300 billion of that in what we're being told is middle class and business tax cuts. Senator, I know we don't know the details yet, but $300 billion in tax cuts -- how do you cut taxes on people who don't pay taxes?" In fact, all American workers are required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA).

A January 4 New York Times article reported that Obama's proposal includes tax cuts o

Media downplay former CIA official Brennan's support of "enhanced interrogation techniques"Today

A January 7 Los Angeles Times article claimed that former CIA official John Brennan "withdrew from consideration" as CIA director "after he was criticized by liberal groups because his tenure coincided with controversial Bush administration programs, including secret CIA prisons and disputed interrogation techniques." Similarly, on the January 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report, chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle asserted that "the left ... torpedoed Mr. Obama's original choice, John Brennan, because he was part of the war on terror over the last decade." Angle continued, "By acceding to their complaints, critics argued, the Obama camp boxed itself in and was almost forced to pick someone with no association with the past, meaning no knowledge of it either." In addition, a January 7 Washington Post article stated that Brennan "withdrew his name from consideration over concerns that his association with interrogation and rendition policies under President Bush and then-CIA director George J. Tenet would taint Obama." However, Brennan was not simply at the CIA at the same time as these interrogation and rendition policies were instituted or carried

During Today interview, Coulter falsely claimed "the Drudge Report has never had to retract a report"Today

During her January 7 appearance on NBC's Today, author and syndicated columnist Ann Coulter falsely claimed that "the Drudge Report has never had to retract a report." In fact, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, the Drudge Report has a track record of posting items that were false on their face or were subsequently exposed as false. Moreover, on August 12, 1997, Matt Drudge did indeed issue a retraction regarding a false allegation he posted about former Clinton senior adviser Sidney Blumenthal's personal life.

Recent examples of false Drudge claims include:

• Pittsburgh "attack"

During the afternoon of October