Media continues to shill for McCain

From Media Matters:

Dana Bash pronounced Sen. Barack Obama's decision not to go through with a visit to U.S. troops at a military hospital in Germany a "stumble," asserting that as a result of Obama's decision, "the McCain campaign got something they could use -- an Obama stumble." Simply presenting McCain's reported take on the issue as fact, Bash made no mention of comments made earlier in the day by CNN analysts Bill Schneider and Gloria Borger, who agreed with the view articulated by an Obama spokesman that the Illinois senator "felt like he was in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation."

Let's review the con job the Bush administration and McCain campaign just pulled on Obama:

Obama plans to visit wounded troops at hospital in Germany.

Bush administration Defense Department representatives contact Obama's campaign staff and ask that he defer planned visit out of concern that it will appear to use hospitalized service members as props in a partisan campaign.

Obama complies.

McCain and the usual Republican elected officials and political operatives attack Obama for deferring hospital visit, which they claim somehow proves he doesn't respect members of the military.

Members of the traditional media repeat, elaborate on, over analyze and embellish McCain's attack, giving it plenty of credibility and mileage.

Mission accomplished.

Wolf Blitzer, member of the "liberal" media

Wolf Blitzer of CNN, interviewing John McCain:

BLITZER: You're President of the United States, you vowed that you will capture Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice. Now we know that President Bush, since 9/11, has been doing the best he can. What would you do different?

Reconcile Blitzer's faith in Bush with Bush's own words in 2002:

So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.

Yup, the problem with the media is that it's too liberal and treats the Bush administration way too harshly.

The Savage Calendar

On his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket. ... I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' "

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Michael Savage's radio show, posted on a website a statement asserting that Savage's July 16 comments about autism had been taken "out of context" and purporting to provide "true context" for Savage's "views." The website -- savageonautism.com -- features "20 audio clips of Michael Savage's comments on Autism," which the accompanying statement describes as "a representative sampling of Dr. Savage's views, as well as the applicable issues, in true context." In fact, all 20 of those audio clips are from the July 21 and 22 broadcasts of Savage's show, during which Savage misrepresented his July 16 remarks; they are not "context" for the July 16 remarks.

If CBS can rearrange the order of McCain's answers to their questions, then what's wrong with rearranging the calendar for Michael Savage? from now on Savage chronological order will be 14, 15, 22, 21, 16, 17, 18...

Oh, and buy Bowman's book.

Facts are stupid things

From Media Matters:

Sean Hannity falsely suggested that federal areas legally available for leasing by oil companies contain no oil. In fact, federal agencies have estimated that more oil exists on the tens of millions of acres of federal areas currently legally available for drilling than there is in the areas currently off limits to drilling.

In fact." In FACT. Fact, fact, fact. Who cares about your so-called facts? It's all about SPIN. And I'm not talking "glass half full or half empty" spin. I'm talking about the kind of spin where you can with a straight face claim that there's not even a glass on the table in the first place!

To a modern age conservative spinner like Hannity, facts are stupid things.

Or as Stephen Colbert said, reality has a well known liberal bias.

Or, as a friend of mine put it, isn't interesting that the oil companies always claim that the oil is in places where the oil companies aren't allowed to drill?

Chris Wallace thinks Karl Rove is a genius

In a recent interview, Fox News’s Chris Wallace said that he doesn’t use former Bush political guru Karl Rove as a Republican talking head on Wallace's show, but as "a straight political analyst". "Karl Rove is the most sophisticated political analyst I’ve ever met", said Wallace.

Jesus Christ. Rove has LITERALLY committed criminal acts to further his career and ensure the success of his candidates, for example planting a bug in his own office and blaming it on his opponent’s campaign. He used law enforcement agencies for partisan purposes, enabling Republicans to capture every statewide office in Texas. He was involved in revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative. He’s currently dodging subpoenas in an attempt to avoid providing testimony to Congress. Never mind his blatant, obvious, incessant partisanship. Is there any CRIMINAL act Rove could commit that would be so bad it would cause Wallace and the rest of the so-called liberal media to stop using Rove for commentary and analysis?

Update: And while I think of it, what, exactly, makes Rove a “savant” or a “genius”? If you let me turn US Attorneys and the FBI loose on my opponents, kick supporters of my opponent off the voter rolls, rig voting machines, allow the relatives of my candidate to announce the results through a compliant media, and enable me to go to complacent judges to certify the results, I’d win some elections, too.

Michael Barone doesn't let facts get in the way

In this egregious column, hack and Republican flak Michael Barone compares George W. Bush to Harry Truman and claims the American public just doesn't recognize Bush's success in Iraq, calling Anbar province "a friendly, peaceful territory".

Bull. Shit.

July 9, 2008: Iraqi police say a bomb in Fallujah has killed four police officers and one civilian.

A police official says 15 people also are injured after Wednesday morning's blast outside a bank in the one-time Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The injured includes an Iraqi television cameraman.

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June 28th, 2008: An Iraqi al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide attack in Anbar province earlier this week.

The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, started by al Qaeda and fellow Sunni militant groups, said in a statement it was behind Thursday's attack by a bomber wearing an explosive belt that killed more than 25 people and wounded many others.

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May 4, 2008: The U.S. military said Sunday a roadside bomb killed four Marines in western Anbar province — the deadliest attack in that area in months.

I found these references in about two minutes. Imagine how many more I (or Barone) could have found with more time.

Anbar province is friendly and peaceful? Well, I'd like to see Michael Barone take a walk down a street in Fallujah to prove it. I notice the title of Barone's column is "We're Not Leaving". I wonder when HE will actually go to Iraq, which will then entitle him to be part of "WE".