No. The answer is no. Let me get that out of the way immediately, because I'm not raising that question, I'm quoting it.

For years, various studies and surveys have exposed American ignorance, apathy and confusion over science, and the authors of these studies have decried the results.  But it's actually amazing Americans aren't worse at science than they are, when the mainstream media is seemingly bent on making them more confused the more they try to find out.

Case in point, a recent Newsweek article discussing China's attempt to clean up Beijing's air for the Olympics, which a Newsweek editor decided to title Is Healthy Air Bad?.

The week of August 4-8 brought us three explosive stories. One, being that Brett Favre was traded to the New York Jets. Two, the revelation that Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards had an affair. But the most earth-shattering story to come out of this work were the allegations from Ron Suskind's book that suggest President Bush faked the case for the Iraq war by forging documents to make it seem that Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein were linked to the 9/11 attacks. Yet, I can't figure out why the Suskind story isn't such a big deal but a politician cheating on his wife is?

The blogosphere has been questioning the "sources" of ABC New/Ross reporting of the anthrax scare back in 2001. ABC News/Ross reported falsely that (1) the anthrax contained Bentonite and (2) this showed it came from Iraq.

But the issue is much bigger than that. Glenn Greenwald, the Salon magazine blogger, has taken the lead on this issue. But he became rather vehement when I challenged the basis for his main concern: there is NO evidence that ABC News/Ross ever had any sources.

The larger issue is that ABC News/Ross sensationalized this concocted story in order to obtain money, and there is every evidence that they did so fraudulently.

This is my first diary ever on DailyKos. I was inspired to write about the book/cultural zeitgeist "The Secret" because I realized it has unsettling parallels to the Republican style of control of the collective unconscious. I realize I jump from topic to topic quite a bit, but these are just some musings I'm having this Thursday evening with a quantity of red wine, and I'd love to hear some other Kossack opinions.

I know that a lot of this has been in the news for a few weeks, but here is a prime example of how mainstream, corporate media is echoing Rovian tactics in its echoing of such talking points as "Obama the elitist" and "Obama the arrogant."

Of course, given his close and direct ties to the most smug, petulant elitist to ever hold the office of U.S. President, Karl Rove most certainly knows elitism and arrogance when he sees it.

This is a short diary. I just felt the need to share Jon Stewart's Keith-Olbermann-Special-Comment style owning of John McCain and the MSM.

He tears the campaign and a press a new one. Some of my favorite lines:

John McCain's saying to the Hiltons "I thank you kindly for your support. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go take a nationally televised dump on your daughter."

The ad is part of a new line of attack from McCain that Obama's got thousands of fans and everyone loves him. . . . "You must think you're so great meeting with all the world leaders (that I myself met with a couple of months ago)."

Nice try, guys, but reducing presidential candidates to 2-dimensional stereotypes is kind of my gig.

Enjoy!

sorry that was me throwing up in my mouth just a little that I said that but it's the truth. I was watching hardball and trying not to destroy my nice LCD tv when to my surprise Andrea Mitchell called McCain out for the condescending, disrespectful disdain in how he talks about Obama.

Further she pointed out that this has been going on for some time, including McCain saying he would go with Obama to Iraq to "educate" him. She also predicted that this would continue and that this was similar to how George the elder treated Bill Clinton during the 92 campaign. Methinks that the media is losing its man-crush, or at least some of it, with regard to McCain.

Sorry this is short and I will try to find the video later. However I thought this was pretty important that someone finally called a duck a duck and saw McCain as being disrespectful etc. That will hurt McCain big time.

As I was watching MSNBC from the breakroom of my job earlier today, I could not help but notice the incomplete piece of reporting of the young female anchor who claimed that Barack Obama got "no bounce" and if anything, John McCain took the lead over him.
The basis of the young reporter's conclusion was the USA Today/Gallup poll of "likely voters" that had McCain ahead by about four points. What was curiously absent from the reporter's piece was a poll of registered voters (also a USA Today/Gallup work) that had Obama ahead and a Gallup tracking poll that had Obama ahead by eight.
I wonder what race this young reporter was watching as she was reporting the results of one poll and not the others.
More below.

In my mind the McCain screwup on the Iraqi timeline is it's own story and CBS cutting the answer out and replacing it with another answer is completely unethical is another story.  ANd both are big stories, or should be. However, apart from KO on MSNBC, I cannot find a single MSM newsource that discusses either part of this.

Crossposted at Strategy '08

Frustrated that his dare to Barack Obama has backfired badly on him and has caused Barack to ride a wave a great press, the McCain campaign has been striking back at the media.  The McCain campaign has released a pair of web videos (yes, apparently someone on his staff has learned how use the youtubes) mocking what they see as a media bias towards Senator Obama.  The McCain campaign seems to be goading the media, hoping that they will finally focus more on him than they have Senator Obama.  Well Senator McCain, it appears you may be getting your wish, although not quite in the way you would have hoped.

Tonight the Politico went live with a hard hitting piece that draws attention to all of McCain’s recent "gaffes".  And by "gaffes" they are really referring to major screwups that Senator McCain has made that shows he lacks even a basic level of foriegn policy understanding.  This piece has been picked up by other news outlets, including CBSnews and Yahoo news, where it was earlier one of the top viewed stories.

More after the jump.

Todays column by Maureen Dowd is an excellent jumping off point for a media double-standard that continues to be a bee buzzing in my bonnet (OK, I don't wear a bonnet!).
Shocked that our Fifth Estate would somehow fall flat in their reporting duties? I didn't think so.
So, here we go kids! Follow me on the other side as I explain how Dowd and other pundits have their heads up their collective arses!

This week's Parade Magazine has essays from Barack Obama and John McCain on patriotism.

One can read the essays and then go online and vote in the poll which asks:  which essay is more in line with your views?

Yes we do.
No matter how center to the left Senator Obama may get, he still gets my vote and then some.

Doesn't it seem like the media performs these random "flips" in objection? I feel so. If McCain commits a gaffe, they all have to work overtime to find some media-created "dirt" on Senator Obama to object to and cause a flurry over("Obama denies young boy fist bump").

I don't know if you've watched a lot of Sunday morning news shows recently, but I just did this morning and, my fucking God, everything is rosier than I could possibly imagine. Unfettered, beneficent oil companies, according the advertising of like all of them, are harnessing the intellectual and technological capital of the nation and the earth and fostering such innovation that they are creating a new energy paradigm even now ushering us unto the midst of Utopia.

They employ brilliant scientists who care about a effecting sustainable future — even if, at a substratum beneath the gloss of advertising, they have spent millions of dollars to bribe congressmen to deny that "sustainability" is necessary to, y'know, sustain things living and stuff. Oil companies are not only not part of the problem, they fully engender the solution! That's what their ads say!

And here I was actually paying attention to news about food riots, pan-European gas-price protests, millionaire former energy executives actually running governments, badly, and the Earth violently rejecting the species.

Fuck that noise. Turns out everything's swell, as is, and verging on a new Golden Age of humankind. Thank you, advertising, for brightening up my Sunday!

What world do these stupid pundits inhabit? I walk in from a long night at work, turn on MSNBC (starring blowhard "Morning Joe"), and there's said Joe, badgering Susan Rice about the alleged strength or alleged weakness of the alleged terror troupe known generally as "Al Qaeda". Or "Al Queda". Or "Al Qaida". Depends on how funky you feel at the keyboard, I suppose.

The Very Important Question being pundited about was, to paraphrase, if Bush and Cheney are such morons, then why haven't we been attacked since 9-11?

Why do they consistently ignore the fact that we have, indeed, been attacked since 9-11? Well, some of us have -- mostly Democrats, who didn't die; and one unfortunate tabloid photographer, who did; plus an odd civilian or journalist, or two.

I think George Carlin would be amused that even following his death the mainstream media can’t bring itself to cover the truth about what he had to say. In the majority of the coverage about Carlin I’ve seen, the talking heads simply speak about his "seven words you can’t say on television" or his desire to "push the limits." They don’t want to discuss the dirty details of the truth and social commentary Carlin brilliantly vocalized. That’s what made Carlin a legend, not merely his desire to say "Fuck" on the radio.

Carlin said the media was a joke, and in remembering him, they’ve proven him right. How many networks have shown some of his most groundbreaking social commentary such as the following:

-Religion is the biggest load of bullshit ever sold.
-The U.S. loves to bomb countries filled with little brown people.
-Both political parties are owned and operated by corporations.
-Instead of putting drug dealers in jail, we should execute the bankers who launder the drug money.
-Golf is an elitist, pretentious sport and homeless people should be given the golf courses to live on.

So, by now, nearly every news outlet has reported on the Imus racial slur / comment: AP (Via Yahoo!), MSNBC, ABC NEWS, Faux News, CBS NEWS, Sports Illustrated, CNN, Google News (which lists 1016 articles on this story), Some other sources that you can find on Google News that prominently address this story:

The TRUTH versus The Associated Press and Controlled Mainstream Media

In this article, I lay out how the Mainstream Media is carefully controlled. The control is so pervasive that an entire article will contain made up quotes from real people saying things that they would never ever say.