With help from the media, this past week proves that down and dirty campaigning can be considered a success. Economic collapse and suicide bombers in Baghdad were no match for the media’s rolling thunder that greeted the slime-time ad that John McCain approved regarding Obama’s canceled visit with wounded troops in Germany. As the New [...]

During the primary, the national press corps, led by Maureen Dowd‘s continuing Obambi imagery, depicted Obama as a doe-eyed, political naïf, too inexperienced and unseasoned for hardball Hillary. Instead of mouthing such silliness, if they had done some legwork and looked into his Chicago political roots, they would have seen one tough pragmatist not above [...]

Like many, I am sure, who have seen the new New Yorker cover, I am still reeling. Nothing the far right wingnut media brigade has promulgated is as offensive or damaging as this cartoon: Obama in full Muslim gear, Michelle in an Angela Davis style Afro, terrorist rifle slung over her shoulder, fist bumping while [...]

Here are four lunacies the news media tried to foist off on me recently, four of many, I fear. 1. A local television station was bursting with pride because one of its employees had donated 77 gallons of blood last year to the Blood Center of Iowa. In addition to the breathless on-air report, the [...]

The election may depend upon it: How to instruct the average American voter to discern the difference between a poisonous lie and a truth based on evidence. A fine June 30 Washington Post story written by Eli Saslow vividly and painfully illustrates the point. The writer tells the tale of Jim Peterman, a 74-year-old retiree [...]

While he may possibly have flat feet and at 55 is probably a bit long in the tooth for battle, gung ho neocon William Kristol still could join the “all volunteer” army if he wanted to serve in some capacity. After all, this is a war that he and other neocons have championed– for someone [...]

Shhhhhhh! Let’s keep it a secret! Presidents are mortal! Consider Wednesday’s USA Today in which Don Campbell was rather dismissive of the vice presidency, noting: “Let’s get serious. Unless you’re making morbid calculations, the vice-presidential nomination and the vice presidency itself are among the least reliable routes imaginable to reach the Oval Office.” “Let’s get [...]

It’s amazing how easy it is to manipulate the television pontificators. On the day after Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for president, you would think CNN and MSNBC and their ilk would be awash in information that newly-attentive voters need to know in order to make sense of this remarkable historic event. Information such [...]

Something’s been bothering me this presidential primary season, and I know just what it is. “Soccer moms” and “football dads.” Not them, really, but the fact that they get to have colorful and descriptive nicknames. And I don’t. I’ve been waiting for something intriguing and multi-syllabic. Maybe a phrase that rhymes. If you look at [...]

Of course Hillary Clinton won big in West Virginia. She was the only one who campaigned there. I waited and waited for somebody in television-land to take note of that fact, to put it in context, but waited in vain. The victory was reported as a triumph, although it was also indicated that according to [...]