Media Matters pulverizes new McCain ad about Obama going to Afghanistan

[zulchzulu]

McCain and his campaign are trying to blanket the swing states this weekend with nefarious lies and there are the willing Royal Punditry willing to sing McCain's lying song.

During the 4 p.m. ET hour of the July 18 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, congressional correspondent Dana Bash uncritically aired an ad by Sen. John McCain that states that Sen. Barack Obama "never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan. He hasn't been to Iraq in years. He voted against funding our troops -- positions that helped him win his nomination." However, neither Bash nor host Wolf Blitzer noted, as Media Matters for America has documented, that McCain himself "voted against funding our troops" when he voted against legislation that would have provided funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and directed more than $1 billion to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as other legislation funding care for veterans. That legislation included a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq except for a "limited number" of troops "essential" for "protecting United States and coalition personnel and infrastructure," "training and equipping Iraqi forces," and "conducting targeted counter-terrorism operations." Further, neither Bash nor Blitzer noted that McCain is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, but has reportedly not attended a single Armed Services Committee hearing related to Afghanistan.

(snip)

McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has attended zero of his committee's six hearings on Afghanistan over the last two years. Meanwhile, Obama attended the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan in March 2007, although he used the opportunity to ask Gen. James L. Jones, then the commander of NATO, about Pakistan. Jones also came before the Senate Armed Services Committee that week. But McCain was a no-show.

(snip)

In contrast to CNN, host David Shuster aired McCain's ad on MSNBC Live and noted, "
http://mediamatters.org/items/200807180013?f=h_latest

[Muttocracy]

1. Newsweek picked it up too - wonder if they read that article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6515781

[KelleyKramer]

2. Without the MSM covering his ass, McCain would be toast

He would be trailing Obama by at least 20 points.