Hey all.  I read an artice today that really sent me over the top.  Mike Falcone over at "The Caucus" wrote an article about how the criminal Karl Rove was attacking Obama on abortion.

No big deal so far.  The really aggravating part came with this segment here

"Though he helped derail Senator McCain's presidential bid during the 2000 Republican primary, Mr. Rove lavished praise on his party's presumptive nominee on Friday. He spoke glowingly of Mr. McCain and his wife's decision to adopt a child from an orphanage in Bangladesh."

No note of the irony of the fact that Rove derailed McCain's 2000 campaign by raising the spectre of McCain HAVING FATHERED A BLACK CHILD.  This he now goes on to praise.

So I realize that this is minor compared to the more egregious distortions going on with that Donut delivery service laughingly caled the Associated Press.  But hey different straws for different camel's backs.

The point is I am fed up and pissed off.  

I have a burning desire to fight back lest my head explode.

I am pretty new at this whole game so I could use some help.  In fact I'm yelling out for it here.  

For instance does anybody know of a reliable way to get the e-mails for these various authors?  I wanted to point out to Mr. Falcone the irony I noted above but couldn't find his e-mail address.  

How else do you fight back?  I looking for advice from some of you more experienced hands out there.  How does one raise an effective stink outside our little echo-chamber here.  

How do we at least make it uncomfortable for them when the media lies or allows themselves to pass on lies.  

I'm tired of screaming at my computer.

So oh great and wise MyDD community...what advice might you have?  

Reposted from the Daily Kos at the diarists request.

AP REPORTS SMEARS AS TRUTH Hotlist
by buckeyemike
Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 11:16:51 AM PDT

Listening to my local radio stations news, I was shocked to hear the right wing smears againist Michelle Obama have now made it into the Associated Press's daily news feed to small radio and newspapers.
The report was that "the Obama campaign is trying to react quickly to reports againist Michelle Obama. She was quoted as saying that she had never been proud of America in her adult life.
She has been trying to improve her image with appearance today on "The View".

"She is reported to have made remarks about WHITEY in a speech at a church in Chicago."

Redacted until I return

AP/IPSOS has released new national poll numbers today.

AP reports it as:

"The poll shows Obama leading Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination, 46 percent to 41 percent."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iP6ao euUCqIEo5DHDOCMLHyUOCpgD8UO8R400

ONLY ONE TINY PROBLEM.  THAT'S NOT THE ACTUAL POLL RESULTS.

IPSOS provides the numbers and it shows:

CLINTON leading OBAMA 46%-41%.

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/client/act_ dsp_pdf.cfm?name=mr080211-3topline.pdf&a mp;id=3813

This FALSE AP story is being picked up and run in local papers and trumpeted on the blogs.  Mark Halperin at thepage.time.com heralds the numbers on his page.  It seems in this case numbers can lie when you want them to.

Ahhh, the status of journalism today.

NOTE: HALPERIN HAS NOW CORRECTED THE NUMBERS.

UPDATED: Ben Smith at the Politico is confirming our initial report. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Margin_for_error.html

UPDATED X 2: A google news search reveals hundreds of media outlets running the WRONG numbers from AP. A few are now correcting. Hard to have a fair fight when the media won't even correctly report poll numbers.

UPDATED X 3: SUCCESS! AP has finally corrected the story. Despite that hundreds of media outlets, local and international, are still running the false numbers.

An example: The Guardian is running, "A poll for the Associated Press yesterday indicated the turn in fortunes, with Obama on 46% against Clinton's 41%."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/12/barackobama.hillaryclinton

There are many other examples. I continue to email news outlets pointing out the error.

UPDATED X4: Thanks to everyone who sent this diary to media outlets everywhere. A review of local papers and media, show that most are now running the proper numbers. Unfortunately, many voters will receive the wrong poll numbers from the Auburn Citizen to the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune to the Boston Globe to KITV Hawaii and the Times West Virginia and beyond.

A FEW THOUGHTS:
The campaign for the Democratic nomination is at a crucial point. Barack Obama's campaign is hoping their momentum will carry them to wins in Ohio and Texas, thus cinching the nomination. It's irresponsible for media outlets to run "Obama leads national polls" stories when they are misreporting the numbers of the poll that they are using to justify the story. The wrong numbers from AP are being reported in hundreds of newspapers, radio stations and tv reports across the country. At a crucial point in the nomination process, that story performs a disservice to voters.

Over the Christmas Holiday, I watched Mark Halperin - ABC News' political director - on C-SPAN giving a Politics and Eggs speech in New Hampshire, and something he said stuck in my brain.  Halperin, founder and editor of THE NOTE and co-author of a book on Presidential campaigns, said the best test of the winner of the primaries would be who could survive the "freakshow."  I think we're getting more examples every day of how Barack Obama will transcend the freakshow and truly bring in a new way of doing politics.

My interpretation of the freakshow is that it's the same sort of drive that turns our media's attention to nonstop coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death and the fallout of her would-be heirs, or that of how Britney Spears shaved her head and went into rehab.  As a human being who generally cares about people, I find both stories quite sad and I pray for them and their families.  But here's what I think deserves much more ink in the papers and minutes on cable news: the Iraq war continues, the healthcare crisis remains unresolved, the globe is getting warmer, students still need to learn...  anyway... I suspect that if you are reading this you probably agree with me - birds of a feather, after all.

So I read this AP article yesterday about Senator Obama's reaction to Fox News's Roger Ailes strange comments perpetuating the name-game on Obama and Osama, and yet I just find more examples that Barack Obama will transcend the typical.  "I didn't take great offense to the joke, I have been called worse," Obama says.

There was the frat boy and great "Decider" announcing yet another new plan for his war in Iraq. Flanked by the bad perm lady, and the human hunter himself, our favorite frat boy was explaining once again, his plan for a "new direction" in Iraq. Gee, I can't even begin to imagine what this "new direction" will look like. Let's just hope it's better than the last directions we took. Let's see now, almost 3,000 of our brave young men killed (4 more today), a half a trillion dollars and counting in our tax dollars, not to mention a region in absolute chaos. So yeah, I would say that it just might be time for a "new direction".

But do you want to know what's really scary? The fact that according to a new AP Ipsos poll, a little over 28% of our fellow American believe that we are heading in the right direction in Iraq. Gee, I wish I know where those people were. Rrrrrring: "Hello", "Yes is this Mrs. Jones?" " Yes this is her, how may I help you?" "Yes Mrs. Jones, this is the Field-Negro, and I have this wonderful idea to cure cancer, would you like to invest your life savings with me?" "Sure Mr. Field Negro where do I send the check?" Seriously, who the f*&% are these people, and why are they even living among us, and not locked away in an asylum some damn where? I mean, do these people really believe that the frat boy's plan for a stable democracy in the Middle East can work? My question to them would be this: Just how much f***g longer would you have us stay there, and will that vat of Kool Aide ever dry up?

"Like most Americans this administration wants to succeed in Iraq because we understand success in Iraq would help protect the U.S. in the long run". This was our President today, still lying to the American people, and still spinning this travesty of a war. "...because we understand that success in Iraq would help protect the U.S. in the long run"? No it wouldn't, success in Iraq has absolutely nothing to do with protecting us here in the U.S. All success in Iraq would do is protect your sorry ass legacy Mr. President, so stop it already. I mean really now George, this has gone on long enough. For the 71% of us in this country who realize just how absurd this sounds and how absurd this war is, this kind of rhetoric makes us all want to...well, move to Canada or some damn place. I mean to follow your insane logic to its conclusion, this would be like someone raping a woman and after she gets pregnant saying: "gee I sure hope this pregnancy goes well, because if there are complications it could jeopardize her life and that of the child."

As I watched the bad perm lady and the VP standing there today, I couldn't help but think to myself just how pathetic a bunch these clowns are, and for a minute there, I almost felt sorry for them. Almost. Let's face it, these guys are in way over their heads, and now they are calling in Tom, Dick, and Harry, or, should I say, James, Lee, and Vernon, to bail them out. And this was Tony Snowjob today, talking about the President's ...ahhh "new direction": "It's important that the American people (Boy they love that line don't they? 'The American people') be aware both of his consultation and his level of concern about getting it right". Well Tony Snow Job, this will be the first time he cares about getting it right, cause he sure didn't care for these past few years. A little late for over 2,800 Americans and an untold number of Iraqis don't you think?

The frat boy meets tomorrow with Tariq al-Hashemi (Doesn't he play wide receiver for the Bengals?) the Iraqi Vice President. Lets hope he has more luck with this Sunni than he did with the Shiite con artist he propped up as President.

The AP just posted a story on the Michael J Fox ad complete with the despicable quote from Limbaugh.  Hopefully this will take off and generate yet more views for the ad.  I suggest people Rate the story highly at Yahoo to keep the story on the front page.

I ran across an article on the Huffington Post written by an AP associate. I have noticed that some AP reporters take quite a few liberties in their press releases that can completely change the meaning of the message. This particular report was regarding al-Qaeda's call for Holy War (her words). The writer makes changes to the original translation, i.e.

"until Islam reigns from Spain to Iraq" actually states "will last until religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq,"

"al-Qaida now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us." Actually states "The entire world is an open battlefield for us and since they are attacking us everywhere, we will attack everywhere."

Once again quotes "It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahri said." But takes liberties by putting OUR in parentheses when it was not in the translation and also adds Holy War instead of jihad. According Wikipedia a holy war is a religious war but jihad is a physical or military struggle.

Here's the original translation.  

In a taped message broadcast on Aljazeera, Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda would not stand by while "these shells burn our brothers" in Lebanon and Gaza.
He called on Muslims to join forces and fight what he called the "Zionist-crusader war" against Muslim nations.

"Oh Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the crusaders," the Egyptian born former doctor said.
"The war with Israel does not depend on ceasefires... It is a jihad for God's sake and will last until religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahiri said.
Open battlefield

"The entire world is an open battlefield for us and since they are attacking us everywhere, we will attack everywhere."

The deputy to Osama bin Laden wore a grey robe and white turban during the statement. A picture of the World Trade Centre on fire was on the wall behind him along with pictures of two fighters.
"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli, but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," al-Zawahiri said.
He also suggested that the world cared more about Israelis than Palestinians.

"The 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel's prisons do not move anything while three Israeli prisoners have shaken the world," he said.
The statement was the first from al-Qaeda to comment on Israel's offensive in Lebanon which began after the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah

So, is the AP part of the corporate embedded MSM?