media matters

i've stayed away from print and web news and blogs this week, and it's probably a pretty good thing: if the daily emails from the fine folks at mediamatters.org are any indication, it's been a pretty depressing week. mediamatters documents the lies, slanders and lunacies of the conservative media, and here are some of their headlines from this week:

• On The 700 Club, Coulter accused liberals of "fak[ing] a belief in God," repeated evolutionary falsehoods
  
• Savage: "use a bunker-buster bomb" on the U.N.
  
• On Hannity & Colmes, Lowry and Simmons teamed up to smear Murtha
  
• President Coulter? Right-wing pundit proposed "carpet-bomb[ing]" Iran when asked -- again -- by a Fox host what she would do as president
  
• Dietl on Muslim "fanatics" fighting a "God war": "When you have eight children, you can let two of 'em go get blown up because you always got six more"
  
• Savage: CNN's Blitzer "would have let children into the gas chamber in order to stay alive an extra day"
  
• Beck: "We went into Iraq three years ago to prevent World War III"
  
• MSNBC hyped Coulter interview in which she attacked Pres. Clinton as a "latent homosexual"
  
• On MSNBC, Coulter called Gore a "total fag," while Matthews said "we'd love to have her back"

one can find the details on these stories at mediamatters.org if need be and one is not already too dismayed. however i did find one of this morning's pieces to be a super-sharp piece of sleuthing:

Conservative pundits made wildly wrong claims about how Iraq would turn out -- what are they saying now about the Middle East?
Numerous conservative pundits offered highly optimistic predictions about the U.S. invasion of Iraq regarding the conflict's duration, difficulty, and human and financial costs -- nearly all of which have proven to be wrong. But rather than hold these "Pollyanna pundits" accountable for their past misjudgments, the media have again provided a platform for their views about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. And echoing their rhetoric on Iraq, these conservative pundits have advocated further military action by the United States and its allies.

very carefully lays out the public statements of bill kristol, charles krauthammer, fred barnes, max boot, newt gingrich and others, revealing the sheer folly in which these men persist. as is often the case, looking to the past is a pretty good way to get a sense of the future; one can only hope that the future is not irreversible.