Yesterday, when MSNBC's First Read immediately debunked McCain's latest Obama lie, I hoped it was part of a trend.

But as compiled by Talking Points Memo, we see that most major news outlets failed to call out the false premise of McCain's ad attacking Obama for canceling his visit to a U.S. Army base in Germany. Presenting a lie and the truth as two sides of an argument is not journalism. It's stenography.

And as Todd notes, Hagel only seems to simply express disappointment that McCain isn't meeting his usually mythical high standards, admitting that, regarding McCain's smear ad, "I do not think it was appropriate."

When a passenger on a crowded flight brings a yipping dog on board, that's inappropriate. This is a smear.

And they keep coming:

The McCain campaign has just ratcheted up the rhetoric on this "controversy" with yet another misleading statement, this one in the name of Chief Warrant Officer (4th class) Michael J. Durant:

   "Over the last week, Barack Obama made time in his busy schedule to hold a rally with 200,000 Germans in Berlin, hold a press conference with French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Paris, and hold a solo press conference in front of 10 Downing Street in London. The Obama campaign had also scheduled a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, but this stop was canceled after it became clear that campaign staff, and the traveling press corps, would not be allowed to accompany Senator Obama."

   "I've spent time at Ramstein recovering from wounds received in the service of my country, and I'm sure that Senator Obama could have made no better use of his time than to meet with our men and women in uniform there. That Barack Obama believes otherwise casts serious doubt on his judgment and calls into question his priorities."

Marc Ambinder apparently super-glued on his villager's hat and decided that this strategy is actually smart Republican "partisanship" on the part of McCain. To Ambinder, McCain is engaging in "repetitive, reactive taunting of Barack Obama."

How inappropriate.

Update [2008-7-28 15:0:37 by Todd Beeton]:Credit where credit is due: Andrea Mitchell calls the McCain ad "literally not true."

Getting closer.