Yesterday, the RNC released a new web ad intended to prod the media back towards uniformly hostile coverage of Obama. With this ad, McCain's increasingly desperate staff hoped to cement the idea that "the media loves Barack Obama." Pathetically, their proof for this assertion was a couple of hyperbolic rants from Chris Matthews and some sarcastic comments from the likes of Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson. It was truly the saddest thing anyone could imagine coming out of a 90+ million dollar campaign. In fact, any idiot with basic video editing tools could put together an effective response ad. As it so happens, I'm just such an idiot, and with a little help from Google, I've put together what, by the McCain campaign's own loose standards, can only be interpreted as undeniable proof that the media is consumed by a collective infatuation with John McCain.

One can't tune into cable or network news for a stretch of a day without hearing the rapturous speculation about who will become Vice President for both candidates. There is a curious dissonance inside that fervor; the VP has brought no positive impact to a president's chances since 1960.

So why is the search still discussed ad nauseum? I'll explain why...

I'm sorry if this has been diaried. A quick scan and I didn't see it, but I'll delete if this is redundant. I also apologize for the brevity. This is just supposed to be a fun one.

So I guess McCain's feelings are hurt. Nobody's paying any attention to him! Everywhere you look--there's Obama's face! So, he's asking his supporters to vote for the "love song" that best describes the media's love affair with Barack Obama. No kidding. This is on the FRONT PAGE of McCain's site:

THE MEDIA IS IN LOVE
PICK YOUR FAVORITE SONG

http://www.johnmccain.com/

You can criticize John McCain for a great many things.  Media relations hasn't been one of them -- up until now.

Over the last eight years, McCain has taken pains to cozy up to the media.  It proved to be a devastatingly effective strategy, as a tidal wave of glowing news reports allowed a broke McCain campaign to neutralize and overcome the immense cash warchests of Romney and Giuliani.

This relationship was McCain's most potent weapon against Barack Obama -- and his best chance of victory in November.

This week, John McCain did the unthinkable -- he threw his media allies under the bus for short-term political gain.  Remember this decision well, for it likely marked the end of any hope John McCain had of winning the 2008 election.

A bit of Media News from the New York Observer by way of Huffington Post. Apparently David Gregory's show on MSNBC, "Celebrity White House Squares", er, wait, "Race to the White House" (which, according to the Observer's story, the New Republic  called, 'Intergalactic Nancy Grace') isn't doing so hot on MSNBC.

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.

One thing has been driving me crazy about this drilling debate - everyone seems to assume that if we drill for oil in the US, that we will get the oil. And hence, we won't be dependent on foreign oil anymore. But we won't get anything, Exxon-Mobil will.

(Cross-posted from Burnt Orange Report)

This is an unofficial part of our "Shattering Blogger Stereotypes" series. The myth shattered -- that bloggers hate the traditional media. The following is a report on an extensive study I completed as part of my coursework at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.

Texas’ newspapers are adapting to the new online medium in noticeably different ways, especially when it comes to political reporting. An examination of the nearly 1,000 blog posts featured on the respective political blogs of the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, and Austin American-Statesman during the month leading up to the Texas primary shows that formal conventions of journalism often do not make their way from the paper pages to the web pages of Texas’ leading newspapers.

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP

McCain got an op-ed rejected by the New York Times. McCain's commentary was in response to one in the same paper by Barack Obama.

Here's what David Shipley, op-ed editor of the New York Times, instructed the McCain team to change via e-mail:

the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq. It would also have to lay out a clear plan for achieving victory — with troops levels, timetables and measures for compelling the Iraqis to cooperate. And it would need to describe the senator’s Afghanistan strategy, spelling out
how it meshes with his Iraq plan

News, No News and Not So News
By David Glenn Cox

I can’t stand to hear a grown Republican cry. McCain likes to spout his differences from George Bush, but he uses the same playbook: when you’re losing, go negative. Today he has become John of Arc, burned for his beliefs by the New York Times, excuse me, make that the Liberal New York Times. And I take offense at that term because I am a liberal and they are no friends of mine!

Washington is a cesspool of conventional wisdom. People in Washington do not want to contemplate change. People in Washington are disconnected from the hard realities of American life in the era of $4 a gallon gas. Unfortunately, Barack Obama's campaign for President has fallen into the beltway conventional wisdom trap this week.  

Senator John McCain is playing the, candidate Senator Hillary Clinton game with the media.

When Hillary’s campaign began complaining about the way the media ‘loved’ Senator Barack Obama and was picking on Hillary, most Obama supporters said, "it won’t work Hillary"; but it actually ‘did’ work.

It’s kind of a funny question to ask, but if America has a culture—does it deserve one?

The reason I’m asking this tonight is that I’m looking over the reviews for the new Batman movie, and they’re simultaneously so breathless and breathy that you’d think a new epoch in cinema had just begun. Look at this stuff:

Listening to the Conservatives whine about how "Liberally biased" the MainStream Media is, you would think they'd know not to give their enemies any ammunition. I've seen so many times they have done just that, either they know it's a big lie or they're masochistically begging to be humiliated.

First up, the Citizens United ad campaign. The NY Times reports today that "Senator Barack Obama" is "an overhyped media darling."

What makes this such a spectacular display of chutzpah is that the commercial features Kenneth Blackwell, former Secretary of State for Ohio and other characters that you wouldn't think the Republicans would want to be linked to by this media.

Ok, so by now you've probably heard about the McCaign campaign's ad, "Love Is In The Air", which whines about the MSM's supposed ""love affair" with Obama.

As Jake Trapper from Political Punch puts it,

"This is like Britney Spears complaining that the hype around Miley Cyrus far exceeds her talent."

John McCain's campaign is floundering and desperate. He is bankrupt both financially and intellectually. And nothing illustrates this more than his pathetic attempts at self-promotion through media manipulation. Rather than present his policies and personal attributes to sway a skeptical electorate, McCain has opted to beg for attention from the press and hope they favor him with some attention.

* * * BREAKING * * *
SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE - Somewhat calling into question the conventional wisdom of the 2008 campaign, it was discovered Monday that Arizona Senator John Sidney McCain III, 71, is also running for president.

I again call request MSNBC let her go vacation or recluse herself from covering the election. I specifically target her because her demeanor has crossed the line. It is clear she cannot be objective.

For the second day in a roll, she has displayed her obvious dislike for Obama's policy and stating the talking points for the Republican Party.

Today, she states Obama was "cocky" when he made the point that the Bush administration were following his lead in diplomatic negotiations with Iran, which Obama noted by saying he was scorn for his position. In addition, she stated that Obama should give McCain credit for "surge" and Obama stated that he would not listen to the General.
For the record, each candidate ought to bring their policy and argument to the forefront = Not the Media’s Job to Make Arguments and Rebuttals, especially when one pretends to be a "news journalist in the field."