I am afraid for this country because of our inadequate, complicit, incurious media.

[madfloridian]

Because of the idiotic talking heads like David Gregory...to just mention one for now. I watched part of his show tonight on a video clip, where Pat Buchanan was acting like the fool he is and Rachel Maddow went after him. She even lit into Dana Milbank, who richly deserved it for his column today.

But she is only one person. Harold Ford, our beloved DLC chairman (Not DNC chairman....yet) really saw nothing wrong with things they were saying about Obama. Said to the effect it was part of running for office.

It shouldn't be. Opponent attacks are one things, but a lazy, complicit, incurious media is something else entirely. That is the kind of media we have now.

I have almost quit watching any cable news, but when I do turn it on awhile I am stunned at the absolute lack of informed minds I see. They only parrot words, usually the latest talking points from the right wing. I hate to say lack of intelligence, but I see some of that as well.

They should all be embarrassed.

CNN and MSNBC are just like FOX now basically. Countdown is still better than the others, but it is only one show. It is just about all we have. If I had seen Milbank's face on there tonight I would have turned it off as well.

They are only getting started. Their job appears to be to get McCain elected, qualified and capable or not. Doesn't matter to them at all. Not one bit. They have their jobs to do, and they will do them. The script is written.

Today was the worst, because we could see in one moment Karl Rove labeled with contempt by a House committee. We knew it would not go anywhere because Nancy Pelosi says it won't. I guess she is no different than any of the others....afraid of the administration and the powers that be.

Fearful of what they might do if cornered.

Yet...to make it worse today we saw one of the more "enlightened" (usually) reporters simply cross the line. He used the talking points that were started by Karl Rove this last week. Dana Milbank just took them and ran with them.

In Wayne Slater's blog today he said that says Rove started the "arrogant Obama" stuff and the media fell for it.

But here's the beauty part: Even the dreaded MSM -- the mainstream media -- is picking up the theme. In the latest issue of the New Republic, Gabriel Sherman found reporters complaining that Obama's campaign was "acting like the Prom Queen." New York Times' Adam Nagourney cites an unprecedended overreaction by the Obama camp to one of his stories. And the New Yorker let it be known it was excluded from Obama's overseas trip because of that satirical magazine cover in which the campaign was not amused.

Now comes Dana Milbank of The Washington Post with a piece that begins: "Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee."

Karl certainly knows how to call them.

Even the printed media is starting to just print things that are not true. This week a Florida newspaper had a stunning headline.

Florida newspaper declares we are winning in Iraq...only a few "scattered battles" now.

This was the day before the new outbreak of suicide bombings in Iraq.

BAGHDAD | The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace - a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

There was no counter view, no disagreement, just the one article.

Last Wednesday Howard Dean was on with David Shuster. Shuster told him the economy was better. To Dean's credit, he disputed him....but how in the world did we get to this place where our most respected reporters and journalists just print or say whatever comes to mind.

David Shuster pumping the lie that the economy is so much better. Dean stood his ground and repeatedly made it clear that the economy was only better for a few. Shuster just kept on. Typical of our media now, just spread those talking points.

The talking heads know we are not winning the war in Iraq, they know the economy is not better. Yet they just keep on saying things like that.

Maybe the TV cable and network news stations have decided to present opinions and editorialize, just like the new head of the Associated Press is going to do.

Ron Fournier and the AP...changing from factual reporting to opinion and bias?

Don't forget that Fournier was once asked to be part of the McCain campaign, is known to have exchanged buddy buddy emails with him. We can only imagine which direction the AP would be likely to go.

Ron Fournier says he regards Sandy Johnson, his predecessor as head of The Associated Press’s Washington bureau, as “a mentor.” Johnson, though, regards Fournier, who replaced her in a hard-feelings shake-up in May, as a threat to one of the most influential institutions in American journalism.

“I loved the Washington bureau,” said Johnson, who left the AP after losing the prestigious position. “I just hope he doesn’t destroy it.”

There’s more to her vinegary remark than just the aftertaste of a sour parting. Fournier is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at the 162-year old wire to move from its signature neutral and detached tone to an aggressive, plain-spoken style of writing that Fournier often describes as “cutting through the clutter.”

In the stories the new boss is encouraging, first-person writing and emotive language are okay.

Newspapers have sections for news, opinion, editorial. They need to be kept separate.

I foolishly thought that maybe the talking heads would not be so bad this election year. It was so horrible in the previous election years with the spin for Iraq before and after, it was so hard to see our candidates put down and a fool like Bush elevated.

Looks like it won't be much better, maybe even worse. In April a couple of the CNN female reporters were rambling on, and they admitted that they at that moment were receiving the GOP talking points on their blackberries... and that one of our candidates was using them.

It is worse than it was in 2002 and 2004 because now we know the truth, the media KNOWS the truth, and the world knows the truth. Our media is choosing to lie and spin, and I find it scary.