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To Bob Woodward, it was the modern-day equivalent of the Pentagon Papers. But to Obama administration officials, the classified assessment of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan represented, if published by The Washington Post, a potential threat to the safety of U.S. troops. The result was that The Post agreed to a one-day delay in publishing the report by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, and that the paper's top editor engaged in a lengthy discussion Sunday with three top Defense Department officials in a meeting at the Pentagon... Woodward said in an interview Tuesday...

<p>A provocative full-page newspaper ad from Fox News drew heated reactions from its rivals today and one demand that The Washington Post apologize for running it.</p> <p>Over photos of protesters gathering for an "anti-tax" rally in Washington last Saturday, the ad asked: "How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN Miss This Story?"</p>

For once, mainstream journalists did not retreat to the studied neutrality of quoting dueling antagonists. They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up. But it didn't matter. The story refused to die. The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity. In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion. But even when they report the facts, they have had...

For once, mainstream journalists did not retreat to the studied neutrality of quoting dueling antagonists.They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up. But it didn't matter. The story refused to die. The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity...even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion. In the 10 days after Palin warned on Facebook of an America "in which my parents or...

For once, mainstream journalists did not retreat to the studied neutrality of quoting dueling antagonists. They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up. But it didn't matter. The story refused to die. The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity. In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion. But even when they report the facts, they have had...

Dan Rather is wrong. Barack Obama should stay out of it. We don't need no stinkin' presidential commission. It's not that the former CBS anchor has delivered a flawed diagnosis. The news business, as Rather wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, is in deep trouble, particularly the print side. But his prescription -- that only high-level White House involvement can draw sufficient attention to the media's plight -- badly misses the mark. This president may be able to bring Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley together for a beer...But rescuing the news business is beyond his power... But the challenge...

Here is video of Howard Kurtz, host of CNN's Reliable Sources, reviewing the history of the Keith Olbermann - Bill O'Reilly blood feud that has been going on for years now. Kurtz had reported previously that there was some kind of deal in the works to get the two to tone it down (denied by Olbermann), but as Kurtz reports, both are back to full steam ahead in hammering each other on a regular basis. . . . . (Watch Video)

Here is video of White House Aide Linda Douglass on Reliable Sources today defending her attack on a video showing President Obama in his own words saying he wants to move America to a single-payer system. Douglass called the video "disinformation," when actually it simply used Obama's own words against him. Even Reliable Sources Host Howard Kurtz said he was "skeptical" that using a person's own words could be called "disinformation." Kurtz also challenged Douglass on the White House's solicitation of citizens to send in examples of opposition to Government Health Care via email. She denied that the White House...

It was never intended to be a cease-fire. The best that the men who run two of the nation's media giants were hoping to achieve was a ratcheting down of the rhetoric between their warring commentators. But Keith Olbermann refused to play along this week... Immelt detailed his grievances. His elderly parents in Cincinnati, he said, watch O'Reilly every night... But the war was just beginning at MSNBC... The day after Olbermann's comments about the Tiller slaying, executives convened a large meeting and talked about Fox and the importance of striking the right on-air tone. Olbermann later expressed a willingness...

On July 22, 2009, President Obama held one of the most boring news conferences in the history of televised presidential events. For nearly 50 minutes, he blathered on about private and public health care plans, red pills and blue pills, costs and benefits. In the last five minutes of the conference, he made his controversial comments about Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge, Mass., police department -- but by that time, everyone watching was either drifting into sleep or totally comatose. So why did ABC, NBC, and CBS broadcast this atrocious, narcolepsy-inducing ode to arrogance in the midst of prime...

Media Bias: Is it just us or is there something wrong with the White House dictating news coverage to advance the president's medical insurance agenda? We thought this sort of thing happened only in Venezuela.In an unprecedented intervention by government in private media, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel called all three TV networks and muscled them into giving President Obama prime time coverage for his medical expansion program. For some, Emanuel didn't bother with mere newsmen. He went straight to the top, calling corporate owners such as Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, whose company controls ABC, and General...

David Axelrod's son is following his father's career path -- that is, the one he had before becoming a political strategist. Ethan Axelrod is joining the Huffington Post, the liberal Web site that has been largely supportive of President Obama. His dad, now a White House senior adviser, was a Chicago Tribune reporter until he quit in 1984 to help run a Senate campaign (and still has a soft spot for newspapers, though his old one is in bankruptcy). "I've been interested in journalism for a while," the 22-year-old Axelrod said Tuesday. "I heard through my father that they were...

She survived Katie Couric and Tina Fey, searing scrutiny, rumors about her baby, anonymous taunts of "whack job" from those who once touted her credentials to be a heartbeat away. Yesterday Sarah Palin completed a remarkable media flameout that made her one of the most famous women in the world, the exotic Alaska caribou hunter, one of the most revered and reviled politicians in modern history. The governor announced she is calling it quits, just eight months after she and John McCain went down to defeat. She has nursed a grudge against mainstream journalists, accusing them of peddling "gossip and...

The New York Times won five Pulitzer Prizes yesterday, including one for uncovering the prostitution scandal that forced Eliot L. Spitzer (D) to resign as New York governor, while Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson captured the prize for commentary for his writing about the campaign that led to Barack Obama's election....

Ignores his own network's bimbo eruption (Susan Roesgen).

And he talks about it on his own CNN show.

On last Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I made a last-minute decision to add an item about Bristol Palin's ex-boyfriend -- not because I'm particularly fascinated by the ex-boyfriend, mind you, but because Sarah Palin had just ripped Levi Johnston apart.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Having mastered the Hollywood gossip scene, celebrity site TMZ apparently has set its sights on a new conquest — Capitol Hill. The site — owned by Time Warner, CNN’s parent company — has started accosting members of Congress, including Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock, as they go about their work in Washington. “I didn’t know what was going on,” Schock said of his first encounter with TMZ. “I was on my way to the floor for a vote, I’m talking to a constituent literally on my cell phone and there’s some guy with a handycam in street...

In the midst of a segment on Rush Limbaugh on Sunday morning's Reliable Sources portion of CNN's State of the Union, host Howard Kurtz scolded his journalistic colleagues for a remark which “totally got missed by the media,” how CNN host D.L. Hughley charged “that the Republican convention 'literally looks like Nazi Germany.' I don't understand how he can get away with saying that. I think that is an outrage.”

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper recalls getting "a feeling in the pit of my stomach" when he learned that the Rocky Mountain News was shutting down. "Even when they were uncovering corruption in the city, even when they were embarrassing us or causing us discomfort, they were making the city better," he says. "It's a huge loss." The grim echoes of the nearly 150-year-old paper's demise Friday could be heard in newsrooms and communities across the country. Although the Denver Post will still cover Hickenlooper's region, some cities -- most notably San Francisco -- are facing the prospect of life...

Here is video of media analyst Bernard Goldberg taking the Mainstream Media to task for being activists in favor of Barack Obama during the 2008 election. He is talking with Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz, and says what every thinking American knows is true -- the media set out to elect Barack Obama as President. Kurtz tries to defend the media with several lame attempts, but Goldberg effectively hammers home the reality that if the media had scrutinized Obama's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright early in the campaign, as they should have, Obama would have never been nominated and would...

The growing exodus of mainstream reporters from the nation's capital has ceded much of the turf to a new, more specialized kind of journalism. Just as newspaper, magazine and television bureaus here are shrinking or shutting down at the dawn of the Obama administration, high-priced newsletters and trade publications are filling the breach. Climate Wire, an online newsletter launched last year, now has more Washington staffers -- 10 -- than Hearst Newspapers. "This dramatically changes what gets covered and how," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which surveys the new landscape in a report released...

I'm not an economist, but when Tim Geithner unveils his long-awaited bailout plan and the Dow plunges nearly 400 points, that's probably not a good sign. Most people have been scratching their heads about the Bush bailout. How could we have spent half the $700 billion and yet the banks still aren't lending? They're sitting on the cash or buying other banks and paying bonuses? Where did the money go? Against that backdrop, the last thing the Obama administration needed was complaints that its plan didn't provide enough details. But that was the overwhelming reaction. "Critical details of the plan...

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer. When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment. The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting...

MRS. BUSH: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this White House for this special occasion -- the presentation of the National Medals of the Arts and the National Humanities Medals. These medals recognize great contributions to art, music, theater, literature, history, and general scholarship. Congratulations to all of this year's recipients, and to the proud family members and loved ones who are here with you this afternoon -- we're happy to have you all. *snip* For more than 40 years, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities have inspired our creativity and helped shape our...

What makes this piece by Howard Kurtz so remarkably stupid is that he is supposed to be the media critic for the Washington Post and he never saw this kind of slavish devotion to Obama during the campaign? What's troubling here goes beyond the clanging of cash registers. Media outlets have always tried to make a few bucks off the next big thing. The endless campaign is over, and there's nothing wrong with the country pulling together, however briefly, behind its new leader. But we seem to have crossed a cultural line into mythmaking. "The Obamas' New Life!" blares People's...

After hearing about Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Fr. Michael Pfleger, and the militant activists of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), it should be clear to everyone that his extremist roots run deep. But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has yet another connection with the world of far-Left radicalism. Obama has long been linked — through foundation grants, shared political activism, collaboration on legislation and tactics, and mutual praise and support — with the Chicago-based Gamaliel Foundation, one of the least known yet most influential national umbrella groups for...

-snip- "The media still misunderstand and, to a great degree, still misrepresent polls," veteran pollster John Zogby says. "It's a cliche, but what we offer is a snapshot in time. We don't predict, can't predict." He says the greatest differences among pollsters are the way they select and weight their voter samples. Zogby, for instance, reports figures only for likely voters -- which requires projections based on turnout models -- while others include all registered voters or all adults. -snip- The punditry about Palin also sends a not-so-subtle signal. New Republic columnists have been arguing about whether the Alaska governor...

Fifty-seven percent of the print and broadcast stories about the Republican nominee were decidedly negative, the Project for Excellence in Journalism says in a report out today, while 14 percent were positive. Obama's coverage was more balanced during the six-week period from Sept. 8 through last Thursday, with 36 percent of the stories clearly positive, 35 percent neutral or mixed and 29 percent negative.

Good rhetorical question

John McCain was on tonight–sharp, confident, and powerful. I think he won this debate, although only on points. True, McCain needed something more than a narrow win, but I still think he did himself some good. On the other hand, even when Obama is on the defensive, he radiates calm and confidence. That helps him, regardless of who wins or loses the argument on the issue at hand.On ACORN, I continue to be stunned by Obama’s denials of his extensive ties to this execrable group. The fact that ACORN came up at all is good. Most folks still don’t know...

The contrast between, on the one hand, the huge amount of material about Obama’s radical associations that has been published in on-line journals and in a few brave newspapers, and on the other the refusal by big media to address it and to vilify those who do, becomes more astounding by the day. The Obamaniacs are spinning the relationship between Obama and William Ayers, former of Weather Undergound Terrorism Inc, as of no consequence because this was supposedly a chance acquaintance and because the educational project they worked on, the Annenberg Challenge, was a worthy one. Stanley Kurtz now nails...

It looks like Jeremiah Wright was just the tip of the iceberg. Not only did Barack Obama savor Wright’s sermons, Obama gave legitimacy — and a whole lot of money — to education programs built around the same extremist anti-American ideology preached by Reverend Wright. And guess what? Bill Ayers is still palling around with the same bitterly anti-American Afrocentric ideologues that he and Obama were promoting a decade ago. All this is revealed by a bit of digging, combined with a careful study of documents from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the education foundation Obama and Ayers jointly led in...

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." (Beyond that) They seem determined to shut people up. That's what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign e-mails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Mr. Kurtz had been researching Mr. Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago...

Today on Bill Bennett's Morning In America, Dr Stanley Kurtz directly tied Obama, Ayers and Acorn to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapse. It all stems from Nobamas time as a community organizer. You gotta hear it.This has to get out. There is a link at Bill Bennetts site: http://bennettmornings.com/pg/jsp/charts/streamingAudioMaster.jsp?dispid=302&headerDest=L3BnL2pzcC9tZWRpYS9mbGFzaHdlbGNvbWUuanNwP3BpZD0zNDUzOSZwbGF5bGlzdD10cnVlJmNoYXJ0dHlwZT1jaGFydCZjaGFydElEPTMwMiZwbGF5bGlzdFNpemU9Mg==

Barack Obama has strong ties to the group that pressured banks into making high-risk loans.Fort Worth, TX (WiredPRNews.com)— ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, pressured banks into making mortgages to those who would otherwise not qualify for them, according to an October 7, 2008 article by Stanley Kurtz, which appeared on the website for National Review. As all Americans are footing the bill for the $700 billion bailout to prevent the collapse the financial market, ACORN leader Madeline Talbot—who has close ties to Senator Obama—personally strong-armed banks into making mortgage loans to low income minorities...

What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along?

As an example of the deranged reaction to Sarah Palin and the astounding hatred and bile she has provoked, this article by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone is hard to beat. All the Palin smears are gathered together in one foam-flecked scream of rage – not just at Palin, mark you, but most significantly at John Public who supports her, because she appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning. What respect for Taibbi's fellow human beings! Showing zero...

H/t Melody N. Andrea Mitchell thinks talk of Barack Obama's ties to an unrepentant terrorist is a "distraction." Rudy Giuliani doesn't. Mitchell is happy to take the NY Times's word for the fact that Obama and Ayers weren't close. Rudy, not so much. After the former NYC mayor made the case on today's Morning Joe as to why Ayers matters, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs came on, called Giuliani a liar, and flatly denied that—when beginning his political career in his living room—Obama knew Ayers was a terrorist. View video here.

From Hugh's interview on Monday's Hugh Hewitt Show. HH: I’m pleased to welcome from Nationalreview.com, the American Enterprise Institute, it is Stanley Kurtz, the man who knows more about the Ayers-Obama connection than anyone. Stanley, welcome back to the program. SK: Hugh, thanks for having me. HH: Stanley Kurtz, let’s start with the basics. All of a sudden, Ayers is an issue. What is the relationship between Bill Ayers and Barack Obama? Can you give us some details? SK: Well, Hugh, I think they had a genuine political partnership. As far as we know for certain, it began in about...

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A CNN article on Sarah Palin’s criticism of Barack Obama’s relationship to unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers actually cites National Review as one of the publications supposedly debunking Palin’s point. How CNN can cite National Review this way is a mystery to me. Maybe we’ll have to set up an NR "truth squad." I was very briefly on CNN immediately after the McCain campaign called for me to be given access to UIC library. A CNN reporter interviewed me, and almost every question was an attempt to challenge the significance of the Obama-Ayers link. I answered every query in detail. When...

Apparently Stanley Kurtz has gotten into the Annenberg files.

As others have noted, today’s New York Times carries a story on the relationship between Barack Obama and unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers. The piece serves as a platform for the Obama campaign and Obama’s friends and allies. Obama’s spokesman and supporters’ names are named and their versions of events are presented in detail, with quotes. Yet the article makes no serious attempt to present the views of Obama critics who have worked to uncover the true nature of the relationship. That makes this piece irresponsible journalism, and an obvious effort by the former paper of record to protect...

MoDo's off the plane Howard Kurtz hangs out in the press tent at Oxford, Miss., and learns that one famous columnist will not be flying on Straight Talk Air. Outside, on a summerlike evening, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs held forth for the likes of NBC's Chuck Todd and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who was wearing an Elvis T-shirt. (The company may have been more pleasant than that of McCain aides, who have barred Dowd from the candidate's plane.) http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0908/MoDos_off_the_plane.html Maureen Dowd Reacts To Being Tossed From McCain Plane http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/01/maureen-dowd-reacts-to-be_n_130863.html Earlier this week, we learned that the McCain campaign...

Fox just interviewed Stanley Kurtz. Kurtz claimed a documented, direct link between Obama's training ACORN criminals and the mortgage disaster as ACORN was the largest gang in forcing the banks to make the bad loans. Obama was ACORN's principal trainer in Illinois. My question: where is McCain? He could run ads proving this link and destroy Obama's candidacy. He isn't.

ACORN trying to get a cut of the $700B financial-market-rescue bill. --SNIP--It would be tough to find an "on the ground" community organizer more closely tied to the subprime-mortgage fiasco than Madeline Talbott. And no one has been more supportive of Madeline Talbott than Barack Obama. When Obama was just a budding community organizer in Chicago, Talbott was so impressed that she asked him to train her personal staff. He returned to Chicago in the early '90s, just as Talbott was starting her pressure campaign on local banks. Chicago ACORN sought out Obama's legal services for a "motor voter"...

Here's the video:

Stanley Kurtz's articles today on NRO and in the Wall Street Journal are must reads. Three takeaways: * Obama had a long-term working relationship with William Ayers. * The Chicago Annenberg Challenge ("CAC"), the only executive experience on Obama's resume, was an objective failure despite the expenditure of millions of dollars. * Through the CAC, Ayers and Obama financed radical organizations, including one with a history of engaging in voter fraud. Stanley's work is a challenge to mainstream journalists. A candidate for the presidency has a demonstrated working relationship with — indeed funded — an unrepentant terrorist, yet the media...

Today, in a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools,” I offer a report on my research into the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), an education foundation once headed by Barack Obama. As I explained in “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?” the Richard J. Daley Library of the University of Illinois at Chicago first agreed to grant, then abruptly denied me, access to the files of this foundation. Subsequently, the Daley Library again reversed their decision and made the CAC files available. As I note in today’s Journal piece, I’ve conveyed the...