Post your thoughts regarding the spin masters known as the corporate media!

They are in full propaganda mode as you can see. You won't see average Americans on there because the corporate media has reduced us to "polls". This is part of our war on the corporate media.

John McCain is an embarrassment. I don't think anyone would have predicted he would be such a horrible campaigner. He's like Fred Thompson redux.

His brain can't keep up with the heavy information load a presidential campaign imposes, so he looks like a moron daily.

He can't give a speech to save his life. He can't even pull off a statement to the press. I've really never seen a worse presidential candidate.

Then, there's the country. John McCain is a Republican. People are sick of Republicans. Our country is - sorry, there's no better word for it - fucked. And most Americans seem to understand that the Republicans are responsible for it.

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.

As John Edwards has become the issue du jour and too many people are salivating over whether his political career is over, we now have yet another hypocritical and needless diversion from what is really important.  Just like the recent overexposure of Paris Hilton and McCain’s passing the buck on his increasingly nasty and spiteful campaign, none of this means a damn thing to, oh, 300 million or so Americans.

But since it is a Democrat and since it has to do with sex and since the real horrors of what has been impacting many people on a day to day basis is getting buried and ignored just to create yet another diversion for people to either say "HA" or to get on their moral high horse (all while probably keeping their own skeletons in their closet), that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be called for the complete and utter crap that is really is.

Of course, if you want to talk about sex and politicians and the impact on their career, why not look at Larry Craig, David Vitter, Mark Foley and the years of covering up his actions, Newt Gingrich serving his wife divorce papers while she was in the hospital with cancer and of course McCain’s tossing his first wife to the curb and having an affair with Cindy the heiress?  

So the "big news" today is that one of our also rans had an affair.  I can already hear the corporate media pundits talking about what horrible news this is for Barack Obama because it somehow reflects poorly on Democrats that one of their also rans had an affair.    Nevermind the fact that Barack Obama is by all accounts the epitomy of what a family man is supposed to be, while John McCain admits that had an affair with Cindy while still married to his first wife who was disfigured in an automobile accident.

I arrived tonight at a new understanding of the out-of-the-mainstream media, courtesy of Brett Favre and ESPN.  With Ms LP and the Kid LPs out of town, I found myself working late, after which I took to my favorite watering hole, hoping to find baseball highlights on TV.  The bartender had tuned the bar set to ESPN SportSCenter, a suitable choice.  After all, we're moving into the heat of at least five hot pennant races, and each game is increasingly tense.  SportSCenter might cover amazing come-from-behind wins, terrific pitching performances, key fielding plays, even a home run or two.

What was on ESPN SC while I sat and had my dinner?  A solid hour of coverage of the fact that the Green Bay Packers have traded formerly retired quarterback Brett Favre to the New York Jets.  Now, Favre is a big story.  But to pre-empt pennant races, weeks before the start of the NFL season?   Why -- and what does it have to do with Barack Obama?

Follow me across the fold...

Moments ago on CNN Headline news, the blonde anchorwoman reported that Morgan Freeman had gotten into a terrible car crash in which his car had flipped over several times. She said that the actor was in serious condition in a Memphis hospital... and that he was currently appearing in "The Dark Knight", which she mentioned is in theaters "now".

CNN, and the Batman movie franchise, are both owned by Time-Warner. She did not issue any kind of disclaimer about the movie being produced by her network's parent corporation. This is a classic example of the corporate media using the news (including a terrible tragedy) for the profit of its other product lines. (See also the Iraq War and General Electric)

In the recent statement by Obama about offshore drilling, there has apparently been selective editing taking place at the AP to delete this paragraph.

Here's an earlier release which contains the whole Obama quote.

http://ap.google.com/...

Later versions of this AP piece leave out this paragraph, and 'news outlets' like the NYT are not quoting this paragraph.  

"Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven't always supported," Obama conceded. "I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact."

Nothing more to see here, move along folks...

Here's today's internet headlines:  9:15am Eastern Time
CNN.com headline:  First U.S. Beef has arrived in South Korea after the Ban (The news agency the Republicans claim to be "Liberal)

CBSnews.com: Cops hunt divorced Dad who took daughter

ABCnews.com: Decision time:  "Veepstakes heat up as choice narrows"

Our Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves:

I know, it seemed to inexplicable, how could a journalist of such stellar talent and unshakable credability do something so rancidly corrupt that it would shake the faith in unbiased reporting that Americans have had for years?!

But there was something we didn't know, a simple explanation that, once heard, clears everything up. It was a promo for CBS Films new Blockbuster film! I managed to get my hands on some promotional material which I scanned and uploaded. Check it out below the fold!

(Update)
I just wanted to say, if you want to steal this image and spread it around, please DO SO! It isn't just early morning people at the great Orange Satan that need a laugh.

This is a repost of an attempted diary from last night* (see end of the diary). In that Diary I attempted to urge Daily Kos readers to call Race for the White House (212-790-2299) to ask David Gregory to explain why he thinks Obama needs to "lighten up" and MSNBC (212-664-7799)to lodge a protest over David Gregory's handling of this issue. What provoked the Rat? It might be the shallowness and artificiality of David Gregory's Race for the White House in general. Or it might be his sheer hypocrisy.  

For those of you who missed it, David Gregory suggested that Barack Obama needed to lighten up and laugh about The New Yorker Cartoon . On the same day, Maureen Dowd made a similar argument in the New York Times trying to resurrect (one can only presume) her stale jokes about Al Gore.  I still think it may be worth the while to call MSNBC just to make the point though the opportunity appears to be lost. Below the fold I explain what I tried to say last night

Looks like the corporate media is cheating on their favorite war hero/maverick John McCain and slinking off to Europe and the Middle East with Barack Obama. And the McCain Campaign is very, very unhappy.

After months of goading Obama, even setting up a time clock to count down the days since his last visit to Iraq, it seems McCain and the geniuses advising him have once again screwed themselves. But then how could they have anticipated that all three major networks would be so interested as to send their top news anchors to cover an occasion as historic as the first black American Presidential candidate traveling overseas where he has enormous popularity and will likely attract record breaking crowds?

Really, where's the NEWS in that?

How scared is the McCain campaign over Obama's pending trip to the Middle East and Europe? Very. It is little secret that Obama is enormously popular in Europe. Any reading of foreign newspapers shows how enthusiastic they are about his upcoming visit. In France, he has an 85% popularity rating. In Germany, where his favorability is nearly as high as France, the populace pushed back against Merkel's comments questioning his possible appearance at the Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin Mayor says Obama is welcome anytime and anywhere. Officials in London are rearranging their schedules to accommodate him, even cancelling summer holidays. And there is tremendous anticipation in Palestine, Israel, and one can only imagine in Iraq as well.

So the corporate media has a real dilemma. How do they downplay what is sure to be massive crowds greeting Obama at every stop along the way in order to maintain their oft-trumpeted meme that John McCain is the great statesman and foreign policy expert?

I can't quite put my finger on it.  Maybe it really did start with the whole FISA deal....

Maybe it was Obama backing off on hs position and take private donations....

Maybe it was Jesse Jackson wanting to cut Obama's nuts off...

Well Rasmussen and Newsweek have John McCain and Obama in a statistical tie:

Rasmussen

Newsweek

enough margins for the Diebold machines to steal another election.

Enough of a margin to keep the race close in order to declare John McCain the winner....

Are we drinking the media Kool Aide?

Well, this is my last diary at DKos, at least for a good while, and judging by the comments to my recent diaries that will be cause for rejoicing by many.  I can't promise I'll never be back, because this site has become, at least for me, the very center of the new liberal movement.

I posted two diaries over the weekend relating to Tim Russert, diaries I subsequently deleted at the request of various commenters and after the diaries elicited an avalanche of epithets, invective and personal abuse the likes of which I'd never seen at this site.  But here are the google cached versions:

http://72.14.205.104/...

http://72.14.205.104/...

I don’t believe people like me should be censored or pressured to self censor at any time when they are discussing what they/we believe is the truth about powerful figures. When you get to that level of prominence and impact, you give up the right to that sort of genteelness. It is much too important that we have honest discussions about what powerful people are doing and have done.

So long, Tim Russert. You are no longer conscious, gone from here and now to wherever and who knows. It will be left to others on the screens to report you’re passing, others parsing what it means and who you were, and how you'll be remembered - as if we weren't doing precisely that right now – and portentously forecasting what you’re absence means and further what it will mean to all of us.  

So?

I’ve been quick to point out the coddling of John McCain by the corporate media, and have (like many) been frustrated when his verbal diarrhea went virtually unnoticed during the Democratic primary process.

But over the past week or so (as a coincidence or not), it seems like there is a breaking through of the various "gaffes", other comments, crazy-ass policy positions and general confusion by McCain – and the coverage has started to show.