SOMETHING TO QUENCH THE MEDIA'S FIX WHILE OBAMA CARES FOR HIS TYPICAL WHITE GRANDMAMMY

I know some of the left wing media are jonesing for their Obama fix as he tends to the grandmother he threw under the bus. They shouldn't fret. I've found something that will carry them over until the Messiah returns. This new drug is remarkable in its similarity of substance and effect.

JOE THE PLUMBER GOES OFF ON LIBERAL MEDIA

Good on him.

RUSSIA: OWNER OF OPPOSITION WEBSITE KILLED

Where's your God now Keith Olberman?

An opposition Internet news site owner in Russia's troubled Ingushetia region was fatally shot on Sunday soon after being detained by police, and his colleagues called for a rally to protest his death.

Magomed Yevloyev is one of the most high-profile journalists to be killed in Russia since investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead near her Moscow apartment in 2006, provoking condemnation of Russia's record on media freedom.

Yevloyev, owner of the www.Ingushetiya.ru website, was a vocal critic of the region's Kremlin-backed administration, accused by opponents of crushing dissent and free speech.

AP LIES ABOUT OBAMA'S FUHRER SPEECH ATTENDANCE

It's as if the media is in the tank for Obama...

"Obama Addresses 200,000 in Berlin" -- thus ran the AP headline the day after Barack Obama's much-hyped speech in front of Berlin's Siegessäule or "Victory Column." This 200,000 figure has quickly become the standard estimate of the crowd for Obama's speech in both the American and the German media: so standard indeed that it is for the most part not even treated as an estimate.

The estimates given by German public television ZDF actually during the event, however, were as little as one-tenth of that number.

THE MEDIA WEARS KNEE PADS FOR OBAMA

The McCain campaign put this video together. Appalling, but accurate.

OBAMA DODGING FOREIGN MEDIA

The shuck and jive comes to Europe:

Barack Obama is on his way to Europe, where an adoring public awaits. But I wonder if the reception would be quite so enthusiastic if Obama's fans across the Atlantic knew a dirty little secret of his remarkable presidential campaign: Although Obama portrays himself as the best candidate to engage the rest of the world and restore America's image abroad, and many Americans support him for that reason, so far he has almost completely refused to answer questions from foreign journalists. When the press plane leaves tonight for his trip, there will be, as far as I know, no foreign media aboard. The Obama campaign has refused multiple requests from international reporters to travel with the candidate.

As a German correspondent in Washington, I am accustomed to the fact that American politicians spare little of their limited time for reporters from abroad. This is understandable: Our readers, viewers and listeners cannot vote in U.S. elections. Even so, Obama's opponents have managed to make at least a small amount of time for international journalists. John McCain has given many interviews. Hillary Clinton gave a few. President Bush regularly holds round-table interviews with media from the countries to which he travels. Only Obama dismisses us so consistently.
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This spring Obama allowed at least one foreign reporter on trips to Ohio and Texas. But as the campaign has progressed, access has become more difficult for foreign correspondents. E-mail inquiries get no reply, phone calls are not returned. My colleagues and I know: We are last in line. We don't matter.

Obama is indeed popular in my country and elsewhere in Europe. But Europeans have the same questions about his experience and character that Americans do. Unlike U.S. citizens, we can't vote in the election; its results, though, will affect our lives, much as it will affect theirs. Surely a man who has said he would talk with U.S. adversaries such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can spend a few moments with journalists from friendlier countries.

OBAMYTHS

Readers of The Big Feed already know this, but it's a nice summary nonetheless:

Members of the media, by a 4-to-1 ratio, self-identify as political liberals. This does not fully explain why Sen. Barack Obama received preferential treatment in his campaign against Hillary Clinton. However, it could explain why they are ignoring his flaws and untruths.

Obama is not going through the intense vetting process which candidates usually have experienced by this stage of a national campaign. Consciously or not, the national media are neglecting to shine the spotlight on him when it comes to blunders and mistakes.

His mistakes range from the laughable to the seriously critical.

This week during an 11-minute impromptu statement to the media, he stumbled and said “uh…” 144 times. When off the TelePrompTer, he clearly is not the golden orator we have been sold.

Little was mentioned outside the blogs when Obama said that he has traveled all 57 states. Dan Quayle must be envious.

When arguing that our military’s Arabic translators are needed in Afghanistan, he did not know that Afghans do not speak Arabic. George Bush would have been crucified for such an error.

His campaign lied when asked if he was born a Muslim. The media took him at his word and did not research enough to find out that Islam is patrilineal. This example of cultural ignorance had the Israeli media buzzing.

Obama told a crowd that Iran does not “pose a serious threat to us” because “tiny countries” having small defense budgets are not a threat to America. The following day, after a little homework, he was correcting himself: “I’ve made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.”

During his Senate race, Obama admitted using drugs beginning in high school and into college. To many a left-wing journalist, use of marijuana and cocaine are no big deal, so why should they bring attention to Obama’s past use? Allegations of later drug use have been ignored.

While overlooking Obama’s cocaine usage, recent displays of lack of knowledge and campaign mistakes, the media are committing a great disservice to America. They are essentially abandoning their historical role as a watchdog over government and politics.

The media do not want to recognize his problems. There is no pressing of Obama as we have seen with Hillary Clinton over her Bosnia story or John McCain over lobbyists in his campaign. Softball questions are the order of the day when he meets with the media. They want him to succeed so badly they are willing to accept his shortcomings and faults. However, most Americans are not aware of this media bias and believe the information they are being told is objective.

The media are acting like a group of friends saying “we’ve got you covered” to another friend in need. Barack Hussein Obama is the “Golden Boy” of America’s liberal media elite -- and because of that, they have him covered.