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| Fox
News, Limbaugh revived Robertson's false denial |
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| Thursday September 1, 2005 |
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| On August 30,
Fox News national correspondent Steve
Centanni played a deceptively edited video clip from the
August 22 broadcast of the Christian Broadcasting Network's The
700 Club, apparently to support host Pat Robertson's discredited
claim
that he did not call for the assassination of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez. Despite the widespread availability of video
of Robertson's remarks and even an August 24 Foxnews.com article
stating that "Robertson clearly mentioned assassination,"
Centanni reported that Robertson had simply suggested the United
States "should go ahead and take him [Chavez] out." |
| Other items about: Rush
Limbaugh FOX
News Channel |
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| Leading
Christian right political groups "too busy to comment"
on Robertson's assassination remarks |
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| Tuesday August 30, 2005 |
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| Pat Robertson's
August 22 call
for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez generated
demands for an apology from members of Congress and religious
groups spanning the ideological spectrum, including the National
Council of Churches, the National
Association of Evangelicals, and the National
Clergy Council. Yet several leading Christian right political
groups -- such as the Family
Research Council, the Traditional
Values Coalition, Focus
on the Family, Concerned
Women for America, the Christian
Coalition of America, and the American
Center for Law and Justice -- have maintained silence on
the matter. Another major Christian right political outfit, the
American
Family Association, excused Robertson's comments as having
been made in "frustration" during an August 25 radio
broadcast and quoted the conservative Media
Research Center offering a lukewarm endorsement of Robertson's
comments. |
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| Blitzer's not-so-full disclosure on guest's ties
to Robertson * |
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| Thursday August 25, 2005 |
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| During a discussion
of Pat
Robertson's recent call
for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, CNN
anchor Wolf Blitzer disclosed the fact that guest James Carville
had worked for Chavez's opponents in 1994. But Blitzer failed
to devote the same degree of scrutiny to the long-standing relationship
of his other Situation Room guest, Greg Mueller, with
Robertson and the Christian Coalition. While Blitzer mentioned
that Mueller is "close to a lot of conservatives" and
knows Robertson "quite well," Blitzer conceded that
he did not know if Mueller "worked directly with him over
the years." But a quick Nexis search would have revealed
that the Christian Coalition, which Robertson founded, has been
a client of Mueller's public-relations firm for more than a decade. |
| Other items about: The
Situation Room Wolf
Blitzer CNN |
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| A correction has been posted for this
item |
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| Limbaugh
claimed media's inquiries about Robertson controversy are a "trap"
to "condemn the entire conservative movement" |
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| Wednesday August 24, 2005 |
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| Nationally syndicated
radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed that the media have peppered
him with inquiries about Pat
Robertson's August 22 call
for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to
"trap" him into "condemn[ing] the entire conservative
movement." On the August 23 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh
Show, Limbaugh asserted that a "network" contacted
him "no less than three times asking me when I'm going to
talk about it [the Robertson controversy] so they can record
it." In response, while claiming that he was "not weighing
in," Limbaugh said that he was "tweaking the mainstream
press" by making a statement and then seeing if it ends
up being reported as Limbaugh weighing in on the Pat Robertson
controversy. The statement: "[A]nd so what I would say,
what we were toying around with here: Well, Pat, why did you
not include Castro?" |
| Other items about: The
Rush Limbaugh Show Rush
Limbaugh |
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| Editorial
pages nationwide condemn Robertson comments |
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| Wednesday August 24, 2005 |
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| Following the
call
by Christian Coalition of America founder and 700 Club
host Pat
Robertson for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, newspaper editorial pages across the country denounced
his remarks, describing them as "shocking," "utterly
irresponsible," and not "representative of people of
faith." Media Matters for America has compiled excerpts
from several major newspapers' editorials below. |
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| Robertson
lies about his Chavez comments; claims he "didn't say 'assassination'
" * |
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| Wednesday August 24, 2005 |
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| Responding on
the August 24 broadcast of The 700 Club to the outcry
over his August
22 comments calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez, Pat
Robertson falsely denied that he used the word "assassination"
and claimed that he was "misinterpreted" by the Associated
Press, which first reported the story following Media Matters
for America's posting of the transcript and video clip of
his comments. Robertson claimed that what he had said on August
22 was that the U.S. should "take him [Chavez] out,"
adding that "there are a number of ways to take out a dictator
from power besides killing him." In fact, Robertson did
use the word "assassination" in the August 22 broadcast
and said, "[I]f he thinks we're trying to assassinate him,
I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." |
| Other items about: The
700 Club Pat
Robertson ABC
Family FamilyNet
Trinity
Broadcasting Network |
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| A correction has been posted for this
item |
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