A press conference was held today at offices of Fox News in New York. The purpose of the gathering was to deliver a petition with over 600,000 names to network executives calling for an end to the racist attacks against black Americans including Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. The petition is the work of Color of Change and MoveOn and asks Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to respond to the allegation that...

"Fox has developed a pattern of airing racially offensive attacks, then apologizing only after controversy erupts. Forced, half-hearted apologies do not demonstrate good faith when the larger pattern of offensive rhetoric continues."

After months of trying to shame Obama into visiting Iraq, Obama is now on perhaps the most successful campaign week the entire campaign, and his trip was the hot media ticket. By contrast, the McCain press corps apparently numbers in the 20s.

Barack Obama has a newly chartered jumbo jet, loaded to the gills with reporters and network anchors accompanying him to the Middle East and Europe, while McCain's traveling press corps numbers only about 25, including camera crews. While CBS News anchor Katie Couric and ABC News anchor Charles Gibson are traveling with Obama, neither CBS News nor ABC News sent even a correspondent to cover McCain. (NBC News is covering both). And this is hardly unique to this week. Only the Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal among big newspapers are consistently covering McCain. NEWSWEEK almost always has a reporter on the plane, but Time and U.S. News do not.

Hmmm, who is missing from that list? It couldn't be Fox News, since we're told that Obama has been "reaching out" to them to appeal to "the middle" people pretend watch the RNC's official propaganda mouthpiece. Not that they didn't try to get a ticket on the hottest political act of the summer. Crooks and Liars has the admission via Stephen Colbert. (Really.)

video of FOX & Friends]
DOOCY: Why are you not on Barack Obama’s airplane heading to the Middle East right now?
WALLACE: Well, I called the Obama campaign several weeks ago and said that I’d like to go and my invitation has apparently been lost in the mail.
[end video]

Well played, Obama campaign.

Meanwhile, McCain left another rambling message about how none of his family will visit. No wonder Wallace is steering clear.

As Barack Obama's global travels - and good fortune - dominate the headlines in the U.S., the McCain campaign has launched two new ads in a petulant campaign against the media itself.  The spots, which prominently feature MSNBC's Chris Matthews (among others), blast a fawning media's seeming love affair with Barack Obama. Whether or not contempt works as a campaign strategy for McCain, it could be a case of biting the hand that feeds him.  After all, as Chris Matthews himself said, "The press loves McCain. We're his base."

Whoever at Netroots insisted that Fox News could only come to Netroots Nation if they were credentialed as "opinion media" was spot on.  

Now the DNC should do the same.   If Faux News wants to come to the DNC, they come as opinion media or they don't come at all.  Those are the only two acceptable choices, make them pick one.

The DNC better understand that if you allow Fox News to control the cameras at your convention, they will alter video, use audience shots to misrepresent the ethnic representation of attendees, and position their cameras in such a way to make Democrats appearing on camera seem awkward.  Trust me, a camera can do this to anyone.

Writer in process of dialing down rhetoric... and it's now set to mildly acidic instead of roaring flamethrower.  I keep the flamethrower private.  It's the right thing to do in polite society.

Morning music:  Steve Kimock Band in Boulder, another show with no date (turn of the millennium-ish).

A quick nod to Miriam at Feministing for discussing reggaeton.  It's hard not to like the music, even when the lyrics are offensive.  This diarist is now in the process of acquiring Ivy Queen.  Liking the music does not have to include liking the words, but it's better when you can like both.  The world would be a better place if everyone were treated equally, and working to create that environment is important.  That's what this Cuban diarist thinks, anyway.

This is the picture:  John McCain refers to the Iraq-Pakistan border.  He's not making our work any harder, is he?  Sure he's qualified.

It's time to dance.
Buenos dias.  

Just to see how Fox News is covering Obama's trip, I choked back the bile and pointed my browser to foxnews.com.

As if Malmedy, Sean Hornbeck, Andrea Mackris, Falafel, Loofah, cheering Al Qaeda to blow up the Coit Tower, Paris Business Review, the non existent Peabodys, the call to jail everyone at Air America, his comments about how he wished hurricane Katrina could have killed everybody in a United Nations building, or a study at Indiana showing that Bill O'Reilly engages in name calling about once every six seconds were not enough, Bill O'Reilly made have hit a
new low.

In his hatred for the state of Vermont and attempt to mischaracterize the values of its people (similar to Harold Ford's New York comments and the GOP's "San Francisco liberal" meme) Bill O'Reilly is reporting, without any evidence, that a 12 year old girl in Vermont who was murdered was also raped.  The Republican Governor of Vermont, law enforcement officials in Vermont, and the family of the victim who was killed are outraged.

[UPDATED WITH VIDEO AT THE END]

Joe Lieberman appeared on Fox News Sunday and all but said that he would speak at the Republican National Convention if he were to be asked.

His answer was beyond comical, it was a disgusting lie he told in stating that he would not attack Obama (something he has done countless times already, putting the lie to his statement) but simply tout the glorious John McCain.

Chris Wallace asked him the question in the context of him losing his leadership positions in the Democratic Caucus by speaking at the RNC.

The transcript of that question is below the fold.  To sum it up, Joe doesn't give a shit if he loses anything from the Democratic Party, he's simply serving McCain no matter the consequences.

Senator Reid, are you awake yet?

Okay, it's time for the Straight Talk Express to make a stop at Liberal Land, AKA Alan Colmes City.  Mr. Colmes, sir, it is your duty to seek an extreme makeover (pundit edition, airing on Lifetime this fall), and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to call on NetRoots Nation to make a donation to your image -- all in the service of ensuring that the left is perceived as strong and resolute.

Now, don't get me wrong, we're all happy as hell that you gave up stand-up comedy and became a talking head.  But the danger of playing second fiddle to Sean Hannity is that you wind up as a kind of political straight man, serving up liberal tidbits that Hannity terminators his way past -- with the help of the producer controlling the cameras.

This is the second part to a seven part series that includes an introduction to the Fox News Terror Survival Handbook and a description of the six crucial items that should be carried as part of the Terror Survival kit.

Part 1: The Introduction
Captain Subtext has taken upon himself to bring light to the otherwise deceptive information, data, comments, commentary and other general pronouncements that appear in the media. From time to time he feels that it is his civic duty to clarify the political landscape as he encounters it. On one of his treks through the wonders of the World Wide Web or as he calls it www dot oh my god dot you’ve got to be kidding dot do they think we’re idiots dot what a bunch of morons dot com, he stumbled upon the Fox News Terror Survival Handbook. What follows is his translation of the Fox News’ Terror Survival Handbook version into his unique view of reality. The Terror Survival Handbook text will appear in block quotes followed by the Captain Subtext translation labeled as, well, Captain Subtext translation.

If you missed part one click here.

This is the first part to a seven part series that includes an introduction to the Fox News Terror Survival Handbook and a description of the six crucial items that should be carried as part of the Terror Survival kit. Look for Part 2 of Captain Subtext's Translation in the near future.

Part 1: The Introduction
Captain Subtext has taken upon himself to bring light to the otherwise deceptive information, data, comments, commentary and other general pronouncements that appear in the media. From time to time he feels that it is his civic duty to clarify the political landscape as he encounters it. On one of his treks through the wonders of the World Wide Web or as he calls it www dot oh my god dot you’ve got to be kidding dot do they think we’re idiots dot what a bunch of morons dot com, he stumbled upon the Fox News Terror Survival Handbook. What follows is his translation of the Fox News’ Terror Survival Handbook version into his unique view of reality. The Terror Survival Handbook text will appear in block quotes followed by the Captain Subtext translation labeled as, well, Captain Subtext translation.

Mission Accomplished 2.0 - The Big Big Turning Point

I know that this may seem a bit "lame" to some, a bit silly or even pointless to others - but I think that this should be addressed.

Sean Hannity ( just moments ago ) challenge Barack Obama to not only come on Hannity and Colmes, but offered the co-hosting spot to him.  He also offered the entire 3 hours of his radio program, as well as the full hour of Hannity's America.

-----> More below the fold

We all keep hearing how Comcast is dropping MSNBC from its basic line-up and only offering it to their digital cable subscribers. If we work together as a united front we can hold Comcast accountable for their action and restore a balance to basic cable.

It's an early morning here at my desk, as I've just finished editing several of my team's articles. They are a team of student journalists, rising high school juniors and seniors, responsible, bright students of color. The children are the future, and many of these students will eventually make their impressions and contributions, with their pens in hand, and their ears tuned in to Hip-Hop music.

Tuesday, the rap legend NaS released his "Nigger" album, I haven't bought it yet, but my (blue, pink, green, red) friends who got it say it rocks, and I will buy it because NaS is my favorite rapper. I ask high schoolers what they think about the title and it doesn't really offend anybody. They don't want a white person calling them by that name, but most of these students call each other that. This is so passe.

It almost seems picture perfect that Reverend Jackson, who has so denounced the use of the so-called "nN" word, would be shown using it himself. And this latest shoe to drop reveals what we young ones have known all along - that objections to the word are more about politics than pain.

Jesse Jackson is not without his problems, but he's been a Lion of the Civil Rights movement, a pain in the Right's Rear End, and a far more tasteful dresser than Al Sharpton, so I've always liked him.  When O'Reilly broke the tape, that didn't change.  Instead, what caught my attention was the way Fox News was presenting the material.  It was out of context and obviously edited to remove a section tape.  Why?

O'Reilly's explanation was that the edited section was immaterial to the discussion of intergenerational conflict within the African-American community.  A topic on which he has reported with so much passion in the past.  He said:

"We're not out to get Jesse Jackson.  We're not out to embarrass him...if we were, we would have used what we have"
[emphasis mine]

It was at that moment that I knew he was out to get Jesse Jackson.  

Cliff Kincaid is an editor at the rabidly conservative Accuracy in Media and the president of America’s Survival, an anti-United Nations group. He is also the author of one of the most dementedly hilarious articles I've read all year.

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Amazing at this late date in Bush's administration that you still, on occasion, see Bush '04 bumper/window stickers on cars.  Do you ever see these?  I saw a little "W 04" window decal on the back window of a pickup truck on my way to work this morning.  Are you like me? -- I can't help but drive alongside such a vehicle and take a quick peak at the driver.  Of course it's always a white male - draw your own conclusions.