Media Matters:"Myths and falsehoods about Hillary Rodham Clinton"

On January 20, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) announced the formation of her presidential exploratory committee. Yet despite the claim by conservative news outlets such as Fox News that the Washington press corps is "pulling for her," media reports and commentary are already rife with myths and falsehoods regarding her record, her motivations, and Americans' perceptions of her, as Media Matters for America documents below. Whether new or old, these erroneous claims reinforce the baseless and often demonstrably false characterizations of Clinton commonly perpetuated by the media -- that she is "calculating," "dishonest," "vicious," "ruthless," "unelectable," "unlikable," and even "unqualified."

Media frequently portray Clinton as "calculating" or overly ambitious, motivated by political considerations rather than conviction. These assertions are rarely accompanied by actual examples or support.....

In recent years, the media have also regularly described Clinton as repositioning herself to attract one set of voters or another. For instance, CNN has previously reported that there exist "two Senator Clintons" -- one that appeals to progressive Democrats and one that appeals to moderates.

This pervasive view of Clinton manifests itself in knee-jerk reactions to her actions, sometimes to the point of absurdity -- as in the case of Slate.com editor Jacob Weisberg, who analyzed the songs reportedly on her iPod and found that the playlist "suggests premeditation, if not actual poll-testing."

Critics often cite Clinton's views on reproductive choice as an example of her repositioning. For instance, Chris Matthews has described Clinton as purportedly shifting her stance on abortion in a "transparent" effort to recover the so-called "values vote." He has also accused her of "trying to play it safe" on the issue by taking a "poll-tested path." Matthews has pointed to her assertion in a July 25, 2006, speech that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare" as an example of her changing position on the issue. But far from representing a point of departure from earlier statements, Clinton's remarks in July were consistent with those she made in a January 22, 1999, speech. While first lady, she said: "But all too often, generally because of the loudest voices, the American people don't hear explained the efforts that we're engaged in to continue to work with people from all different walks of life to make abortion safe, legal, and rare."

But the claim that Clinton was once one of the "staunchest" backers" of the Iraq war does not withstand scrutiny -- nor does the claim that her criticism of the war is recent. While Clinton did vote in favor of the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, less than seven months after the war began, she expressed doubt about President Bush's leadership in the war, saying in an October 17, 2003, floor statement, that her "yes" vote for an $87 billion supplemental appropriation "was a vote for our troops, it was a vote for our mission. ... t was not a vote for our national leadership." During the same statement, Clinton accused the Bush administration of having "gilded the lily" on pre-war Iraq intelligence at "the cost of perhaps not being able to take actions in the future that are necessary to our well-being and our interests because we may look like the nation or at the least the administration that cried wolf."