As we've learned time and again, the librul media is terribly fond of doing the right-wing message machine's dirty work when it comes to defining our candidates for president. Al Gore was the serial exaggerator and John Kerry was the flip-flopper, so when the right-wing smears against Barack Obama began to paint him as unpatriotic, The AP's Nedra Pickler was happy to oblige by running an article whose third paragraph literally begins "conservative consultants say..." and goes on to quote disgraced right-wing smear merchant Roger Stone as an expert. CNN followed suit with this very helpful poll although its accompanying article at least provided Obama's response to the charges. As Glenn Greenwald notes, we shouldn't be terribly shocked that this is happening, "That's just how the right-wing/media nexus works" but it doesn't mean we have to accept it. What the right-wing message machine and its enablers in the media didn't count on this time was that now there's a left-wing message machine, the rock to their scissors.

Cue Jane Hamsher:

The AP probably doesn't care a whole lot about what you think, but it does care what the papers who subscribe to their wire service think. So we've set up a page where you can plug in your zip code and automatically send an email to the papers in your area who syndicate the AP and let them know this is beneath what you expect their coverage to be -- for this election cycle and beyond.

Especially if you live in some state that's less likely to get a lot of attention like New York or California, please take time to send an email. We want to blanket the country as broadly as possible and let every paper know that this kind of journalism is unacceptable -- and that you're watching.

You can access the letter-writing tool HERE.

Christy updates as to the remarkable success of the action so far:

...you have sent over 11,800 letters to newspapers all across the country, including well over 1,000 letters each to the NYTimes, the WaPo, USAToday, the LATimes and the WSJ -- and even more letters to local newspapers in every single state.  All in the last two days.  You guys rock!

It's also starting to get some coverage, check out this write up over at Congressional Quarterly.

So, no matter whom you support in the primary, I urge everyone to send a letter today. The media needs to know we won't put up with their typical takedown of our nominee no matter who it is; not this time.

Oh and if your letter is published, hekebelos tells you what to do:

We'd love to see your work, so here's what we'd like you do to:

If your letter from this campaign got published in an online edition of a newspaper, we'd love to see it!  We'll be re-publishing a selection of letters here for everyone to see the results of effective netroots and grassroots action.

send an email with the subject line: "show your patriotism LTE" to:

firedoglakeaction @ gmail . com

Include the link to your letter, and let us know which one it is if the link contains multiple letters.