Thanks for doing the footwork and providing the links on this, Greg. This would be a good one for our Media Watch group to follow up on.

How would one be surprised at this? The media doesn't care about facts because that isn't their job any longer. They repeat assine talking points and feel they are being responsible! I write to the advertisers of the shows and advise them of my personal boycott of their products for their support of media and political bias!

What is worse is the incessant repetition of the ad as the prelude to "objective reporting" about that aspect of the trip or as the set up to discuss McCain's "hard-hitting, negative attacks". The media has probably paiod the ad more than McCain original buy and it is seen nationally instead of the limited states where it is running.

As I write this, MSNBC is playing it again, without correcting the falsehoods in the ad. Fortunately Robert Gibbs follows this run to refute the ad -- Contessa Brewer at the helm.

What is worse is the incessant repetition of the ad as the prelude to "objective reporting" about that aspect of the trip or as the set up to discuss McCain's "hard-hitting, negative attacks".

watching joescar this a.m. and he used an itneresting tactic: pat buchanan and joescar would wholly repeat the mccain spin about how obama 'blew off' the wounded soldiers, identifying it as the mccain campaign charge; but then, curiously, failing to report the obama side to the story.

Also, since the SURGE IS WORKING, will the media report on today's massive suicide bombing and the news that the greedy Sunni fighters empowered under Petraeus are now demanding more money for their service.

the la times had a study they reported yesterday saying the media is tougher on obama i guess this prove their point.......

But, what do the pundits have to say?

That's what passes for news in this day and age, unfortunately.

The Rightwing has to distilll obama’s entire European trip to one distorted talking point: “He blew off the troops.” Forget that he spoke intelligently. Forget that he listened intently. Forget that he clearly articulated his feelings, when appropriate. Forget that he looked remakably and comfortably Presdential. Forget that he received warm and inviting receptions wherever he went.

It’s all about perception and how the media cherry picks the information to package and present. “Obama blew off the troops!” garners more sizzle than “Obama gains respect of world leaders”. And as Scott McClellen has confirmed, many times that disinformation is selected and feed to the media directly from the WH.

But I do have a question:

Why didn't Obama, even briefly, visit those troops without campaign staff? When the Right castigated him for politcizing, he could have asserted that it was approved by the Pentagon and in keeping with Department of Defense policy and the whole brouha would have (maybe) been defused.

Why didn't Obama, even briefly, visit those troops without campaign staff?

Becuase the only difference in the coverage today would be the shrieking heads and GOP ops would be saying 'They told him he couldn't go and he went anyway - in direct violation of the Pentagon!!

This was a setup, period. and it was set up that he'd catch shit no matter what he did.

Yep - it was an Obama trap.

They set him up for this story.

Here's what I expect to happen if I were to bring this up with conservatives:

ME: But the ad is false. The DOD said Obama couldn't visit with campaign aides, but only after he was already on his way with no senate aides.

CONSERVATIVE: Well, why didn't he visit on his own?

ME: Uhhh.... because McCain didn't visit on his own?

I'm not trying to play "gotcha," but was there a reason Obama couldn't visit without any aides?

It was just announced that the shooting in Knoxville was a political hate crime directed at 'liberals' and 'gays.'

Watch this story quickly fall right off the face of the Earth along with the suicide bombings in Iraq...

What bothers me about the media, that in an attempt to be "objective", they have two rival campaign surrogates battle it out. Not once will the moderating "journalist" say that one side is playing fast and loose with the facts.

This is a huge failure on the part of the media, by and large. How difficult is it to examine the claims and compare them with reality? Just because both sides air their views doesn't mean that both are right, or for that matter, both wrong. But it is the responsibility of any journalist to separate the wheat from the chaff, otherwise they become the chaff itself waiting to be reaped and thrown into the fire.

The MSM is nothing but a serious joke. Obama need to hammer McCain on this false advertisement. Let's face it; the MSM won't report the facts because they want a horse race.

Ugh, I hate to say it but "I told you so". I think those who urge Obama to "take the high road" and ignore/not sink to the level of "pathetic desperate laughable" ads of McCain are forgetting the lessons of Kerry2004.

I have said this many times. I think it bears repeating since we are all by NO MEANS on the same page.

The media isn't doing this for ratings or money, or because someone has an axe to grind. Sure, all those things CAN play a part.

The Media is Corporate. Sure this sounds obvious, but take it literally. There is no place in Corporate for sentiment. Or personal agenda, or for thrill seeking because of a tight race. Corporate is about maximizing profit, and to do that you need to have complete control of something as powerful and potentially Good For The People as TV.

You need to make sure that YOUR GUYS (corporations and their minions) always look good and never look bad. You make sure that anti-corporate talking points, and hard evidence of corporate malfeasance NEVER MAKE IT ON AIR. And you relentlessly promote the Corporate Candidate while ceaselessly tearing down and vilifying and pussyfying and criminalizing and fag-ifying the pro-people candidates.

Please, gentle readers, accept and internalize the fact....there is no media sentiment. There is no unfairness. There are no personal agendas or individual journalists that have taken us to this point. This is pure Corporate Machinery, doing it's thing. But profit is secondary. Maintaining control of the apparatus is primary. In all other endeavors, they may be eying the profit...but in Media the corporations have their weapon, their tool. Keeping it THEIRS and well oiled and running smoothly is the goal. The profits will follow. There is much more at stake than ad revenue.
Corporate Media is their big gun. The biggest. And they use it for far more than a mere dollar-generator.

Lastly, there never was a liberal media. The big papers and networks of the last 50 years were corporate environments. They completed the takeover and makeover of the Journalist Profession long ago....just as we are seeing the Profession of Medicine being taken over by Corps. All the ideals go out the window. Personal Responsibility and ethics and standards....done.

On Liberal Media:
Yes, the people who cared about the truth and wanted to report the issues were liberals. And they wanted the news to work for PEOPLE. Now, the airwaves and presses are OWNED by corporations, and the news (and the broadcast shows and entertainments with all their brainwashing) are working for the Corporations now. I think being a RightWinger, and actually wanting to report truth with ethics and dignity for PEOPLE is an OXYMORON. There is no such beast. By definition, RightWingers don't want truth and they are not acting for THE PEOPLE. Rightwingers want control, order, a daddy figure, and Corporations offer them that in spades. Show me a RightWinger who was truly a champion of truth, and who was trying to help regular people....not a church or company or ideal.

Why didn't he go solo? Well, if he's got half the brain we think he has - he had to smell a possible 'setup' when the Pentagon all of a sudden decides on Wednesday that he cannot take campaign staff into the hospital with him. I sure as hell would have been on RED alert!

When you smell setup, you don't go into ANY meeting alone because you NEVER want to be in a situation where it is only your word against one or more persons who just might have an agenda that puts you in the crosshairs!

I see ladeereed, the military would've reported Obama assaulted a soldier or called him a coward. All sorts of outlandish lies would have been created and leaked to the press. The officer and MPs accompanying Obama, along with his trusted Secret Service detail, would have been handpicked Cheney moles selected for their ability to tell lies before cameras and the resulting Congressional inquiry as to why Obama's visit was so deliberately and maliciously misrepresented. Obama's denial he short-sheeted a wounded vet would be dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic in the face of sworn affidavits to the contrary by everyone else present. I have a bit of tin foil in my hair like many present here but Obama going solo isn't included in my list of disasters waiting to happen. I'm still waitng for a LOGICAL explanation for why he couldn't have done it.

An excellent comment that needs a post all it's own!

Thanks DickTater

I don't think it was a gaffe on Obama's part not to visit the base in Germany - there will be many more molehills that McCain and the MSM will make into mountains. The lack of a preemptive statement, a clear explanation in advance to the press and the inability to anticipate and remedy such McCain's moves is what's going to hurt Obama from now till November.

Correction to my memory gaffe: Senator Eagleton's brief time in the national spotlight was in 1972, not 1968. I realized it as I hit the Send button. I guess I'm getting too old to be President but at least I know it.

He didn't go solo because his advisors read the regulations very strictly: he would have used campaign dollars to arrive at the base (fly in on his campaign plane).

The military was going to babysit the campaign staff and the 40 media in the airport while Obama did his visit.

This could all be considered as supporting his campaign, they even had to get special clearance to land, since the it wasn't a government plane.

I think this was a no-win for Obama, but I think he made the right decision to strictly apply the regulations. I think that the Pentagon did Obama a favor by making this decision, even if it was late. I think the Obama campaign tried hard, and succeeded at keeping any blame on the campaign and off anyone in the military, or at the base/hospital. The gift was that McCain attacked! This is a gift, and anyone who is paying attention to how Obama operates would recognize it. He will get to push back for quite a while on this because, first of all, it is easy to explain to anyone who is willing to give Obama some benefit of the doubt. He gets to show that McCain is not running an honorable campaign because he is taking cheap shots at Obama.

The attack is directly at McCain == Honor.

Most people do not associate honor with cheap shots.

So Obama the person gets to just explain "the facts". His surrogates can attack the attack and say that McCain is "better than that". It is a pretty low key attack which is hard to refute, and it leaves a mark.

The Obama campaign will continue to play the parent/child relationship with McCain, while McCain tries to play the angry neighbor role.

Very frustrating. I lay awake last night thinking about this and what it comes down to for McFudd is that he is fishing with dynamite and the MSM is driving him to the lake.

Obama can't afford to dive in each time he tosses another one in. He's lobbing them in by the dozens now. Fudd's crossed over (like Clinton did after South Carolina. Remember?) and there's no going back.

Obama needs to cut him off at the source. Expose him for what he is. There is no high road or low road just the truth. McFudd's truth is enough to sink the f***ing valdez. Use it.

How can shooting a 3 pointer not be the behavior of a world leader, but Bush taking 3 shots a barley hitting the backboard is the behavior of a world leader?

It gets worse: The Post story reported AS FACT the McCain lie that Obama didn't visit the troops because he went to the gym instead -- the gym in question being the one in Kuwait that Obama went to a week earlier, WHERE HE VISITED WITH THE TROOPS.

See how easy it is?

It's really past time for somebody -- Obama campaign, 527 groups, bloggers -- to launch a few cheap shots McCain's way. I mean, do Americans REALLY want a senile cancer patient in the White House?

Big News Orgs Fail To Label McCain Attack Ad What It Is: False

In other news of the day, dog bites man.

Well...you might expect that from Joe.... everyone should check out Mara Liasson on NPR this afternoon. She played a clip of the ad, then, while conceding that it was basically false (which gave me hope for about 3 seconds), went on to talk about how the ad "demonstrates" or "illustrates" OBAMA's 'problem' in passing the Commander in Chief test. Not how it demonstrates that McCain is a lying fraud. Nope! Not the story. McCain lies about Obama's credibility as Commander in Chief and the story is that that proves Obama has a credibility problem as Commander in Chief. It was Orwellian.

Under what circumstances would a naturalized citizen like Rupert Murdoch lose his U.S. citizenship? I can't think of a single person who has done more to damage American culture or shown greater disrespect for honesty and integrity, excluding the Bushist junta, of course.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/murdochs_enslaved_red_states.html