Note: I'm the author of a book about Obama, Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest, but I'm not part of the Obama campaign.

The far-right Media Research Center (MRC) has released a new report today declaring overwhelmingly positive media coverage of Barack Obama in the network evening news broadcasts. I've scrutinized part of the study and media coverage during one month, and this simple look at reality indicates that MRC is intentionally lying about the media coverage.

I've come to never be surprised over anything I see on CNN these days. Despite the fact that over half the people who watch the cable news network call themselves liberals, the powers that be on what used to be the most trusted name in news continue to push neocon bullshit down our throats at every opportunity.

Why? Because they know it doesn't matter how many of us watch their crappy channel, just as long as the top 0.5% of wealthy folks out there keep buying ads.

But tonight was too much. Tonight I just wanted to punch John King in the throat before coming after Suzanne Malveaux with a heavy rock.

Seriously, I'm not a violent guy, but there comes a point where any peacenik is forced to go all Billy Jack in the face of jackbooted fascism.

"The Best Political Team on Television", huh?

"The Most Trusted Name in News", huh?

"CNN= Politics", huh?

"More News than Other News in the Morning", huh?

Having a show that is "smart and independent", huh?

And finally, the kicker of all kickers: "We’re Keeping Them Honest," HUH?!

Cable News Network, correction, the neo-Cable News Network,  instead of saying you’re keeping someone else honest, I have a simple request for you:

Why DON’T YOU KEEP YOUR DAMN SELF HONEST!

John McCain is absolutely right...the media isn't covering him enough! It's totally unfair and I expect the media to correct themselves immediately.

This must stop. I'm expecting a 300% increase in the number of stories on McCain.  If the media is having problems coming up with stories on this wonderful American hero, I've provided some ideas after the fold:

Today brings us news of the GOP desperately seeking to win the presidential election for Barack Obama.  No, I'm not talking about McCain's giving away Colorado on a silver platter--though it is awfully nice of him to help us out like that.

I'm talking about the attention game.  Every Republican strategist in the their right mind knows that the GOP's only chance to win this presidential election is to make it a referendum on Obama, rather than on John McCain and the Bush Presidency.  Republicans know that by the time Obama and the DNC have spent all their advertising money, John McCain will be synonymous with Bush's 3rd term and voters will reject that option implicitly unless the election becomes entirely about the alternative, giving the GOP the chance to paint that alternative as unthinkable.  

The media and Republicans have seen Georgia and the national security issue as a big opportunity to get McCain ahead.  Is the Obama camp too naive about what they are up against?  Democrats always need to realize they are in for an uphill battle with the media the way it is and the Republicans ability to fearmonger.  I got scared after reading these three things and other things lately:

I don't know what to do with all my anger.

On the political ticker, CNN had a story up about McCain not being in a cone of silence. For some reason, the story has disappeared. Most people who go on there know that stories don't usually disappear. They slowly go down the ticker until it eventually reaches the bottom.

As an exercise in examining media bias, I examined the article from The New York Times, August 15, 2008 edition, entitled “With Obama Away, McCain Talks Foreign Policy” by Michael Falcone.  The photographs show Obama eating ice cream with his family and McCain at a podium with a flag behind him, pointing rather majestically to recognize a questioner.  A subtitle for the article reads “While one candidate vacations, another takes an opportunity to look presidential.”  Between the visuals and the titles, it is almost not necessary to read the article to see the outrageous bias, but I decided to take a look.

In the 2008 election, one candidate came in with a long list of natural advantages that should have made him very competitive. Looking at all of the data available, it's clear that he's just not meeting expectations and his poor performance thus far has highlighted his inability to close the deal with the American public.

What is it about John McCain, the Maverick™ war-hero with 26 years of experience in the Senate and near universal name recognition that makes him unable to even tie Barack Obama in more that a few outlier polls? Why are key constituencies in the voting public so resistant to him that is he headed, by all estimates, to a significant electoral defeat?

Even though I will speak about John Edwards and John McCain, this diary is about something bigger. This diary is about the MSM's talking heads that willfully distort truths. Why? For ratings...for money...but more importantly, for their big media corporate bosses. To put it simply, the talking heads want to keep their jobs.

I blasted Cokie Roberts in yesterday's weekly, "This Week With Barack Obama" because she deserved it.

She put that red-herring, smoking gun word usage out that Obama is vacationing in some "exotic" place, called Hawaii and that he needs to go to Myrtle Beach, which implies "more American".

I have held my tongue on the media using this word exotic, coding for "Obama is not American" enough, but not anymore.

Everyone knows that political attack machines (more specifically Republican attack machines, since they seem to be doing the most attacking these days) can be found on an extremely small scale. My hometown newspaper, the Rockford (IL) Register-Star, published a letter to the editor from a man from Polo, Illinois, who stated that we should "fear Barack Obama" more than Osama bin Laden. My response to the letter was generally panned by my friends and even a special writer to the publication, who said that he "was appalled that he played the race card when there was no reference to race in Mr. Gribbins letter whatsoever".

The media has an agenda, every time we fail to understand their motives, we hurt the cause and our hope for a better future.  The media stands to lose billions of dollars if we get a decent FCC chair, they WILL lose billions if Obama is elected.

End of story, end of discussion.

Barack Obama knows that the media is spreading a bunch of stories quoting anonymous sources, as is usual when it comes to manufactuting fights between him and Hillary.

Don't explect Obama supporters, who love a fight, to be as wise as Obama. They will believe anything they read as long as the reporter claims John Doe confirmed it.
From CNN today:

"There hasn't been controversy other than what you guys are projecting right now," he told reporters. Obama described conversations between the two campaigns over convention planning as "seamless." "It has not been a problem," he said.

It is no wonder that while his blogosphere supporters cried "racism!" over the "celeb" video by McCain, Obama pointed to the ad's true weaknesses, at one point observing that McCain's campaign is "cynical, not racist."

Hillary Clinton stands 100% behind Obama unless a non-anonymous source proves otherwise.

Media Matters is breaking the story that CBS hacked up Bill Clinton's response to the Is Barack Obama ready question.  The bold part is what actually aired, but check out the entirety of Clinton's answer:

SNOW: Is he ready to be president?

CLINTON: Well, in the -- you could argue that no one is ever ready to be president.  I mean, I certainly learned a lot about the job in my first year. He's shown a keen strategic sense and his ability to run an effective campaign. He clearly can inspire people and motivate people and energize them, which is a very important part of being president, and he's smart as a whip so there's nothing he can't learn.

Of course, Bill Clinton should have known better than to give a long, thoughtful answer to any question from a reporter.  But this really takes the cake.

Watch out liberal media: your endless cheerleading has caught up with you. In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, nearly half of those polled are tired of hearing about Obama. What has been endless banter about the "fresh face" in this year's election has backfired on the very media outlets that seek to thrust Sen. Obama into the White House.

In their most recent joke of an article, they try to equate the negativity from both sides:

joke of article
Negativity the norm in presidential campaign
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - For all the talk about John McCain's hard-hitting politics, Barack Obama is hardly innocent.

Note that many of their articles always begin with a negative comment on Obama while McCain is seen as "hard-hitting"