Following Colorado Media Matters item, KHOW's "Troubleshooter" called Media Matters "a bunch of clowns," vowed to "reveal" proof of "bias[]"

Following an October 7 Colorado Media Matters item pointing out that 630 KHOW-AM's The Troubleshooter host and self-styled consumer advocate Tom Martino claimed without noting contradictory evidence that former Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines and Tim Howard serve as "chief" economic advisers for Sen. Barack Obama, Martino announced on his October 16 broadcast that he had "absolute, living proof" that Media Matters for America is "biased" -- which he promised to "reveal tomorrow in our little experiment." He later said, "They're not trying to correct misinformation, just conservative misinformation. But at least they admit that, right? OK. They're still a bunch of clowns."

As Martino noted, Media Matters for America states on its website that the organization is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation."

On his October 16 program, Martino did not tell his listeners that on October 7 Colorado Media Matters challenged his assertion -- which echoed an anti-Obama mass e-mail -- that Raines and Howard are Obama advisers. As Colorado Media Matters noted, on the October 6 broadcast Martino did not mention that both Raines and the Obama campaign have denied that Raines is an Obama adviser. Further, the Obama campaign's Fight the Smears website states that the purported connection with Howard "appears to have been made up completely out of thin air" and quotes the fact-check website Snopes.com as stating, "We haven't yet found any substantive connection between Tim Howard and the Obama campaign ... much less any information supporting the claim that Howard is a 'chief economic adviser' to Obama." Martino also neglected to note that several of Sen. John McCain's "most trusted campaign advisers" have served as lobbyists for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or both, as Media Matters for America has documented.

From the October 16 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Troubleshooter with Tom Martino:

MARTINO: There's a group called Media Matters. Media Matters for America. Mediamatters.org. They're a [reading from website] "Web-based, not-for-profit foundation, 501(c)(3). Progressive research and information center dedicated to monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation." At least they're honest about it when it says they're correcting conservative misinformation. They do not mind saying they are liberal, but what they do not do is correct misinformation -- just conservative misinformation. You must know that, OK? That's all they do.

So if someone says lies about McCain, they will not correct it. So truly, it should be called Biased Media Matters. We are biased. That's all. I just wanted to point that out. And we have absolute, living proof of that -- which, by the way, we will reveal tomorrow in our little experiment. But at least, you know, they say they're progressive and they're correcting conservative misinformation. They're not trying to correct misinformation, just conservative misinformation. But at least they admit that, right? OK. They're still a bunch of clowns. 303-713-TALK. 303-713-8255. Welcome to the show. All right, we got a lot to talk about, so let's get to the phones.

—C.H.