Today, David Brock announced what is essentially the death of Progressive Media USA:

"Progressive Media was established to be an independent on-going progressive issue advocacy organization," Brock added. "We were not established for one issue, one candidate or one election cycle. But donors and potential donors are getting clear signals from the Obama camp through the news media and we recognize that reality."

This is creepy because of the apparent cause.  During a meeting in early May, Obama's finance chair told big donors flat out not to support independent groups.  

more...

A brand new book takes a scathing look at the cozy relationship between John McCain and the reporters who cover him: "Free Ride: John McCain and the Media" is coming out this week.

This comes from a Newsweek interview with co-author Paul Waldman

McCain's `Free Ride'

Why is that? Is it just that he's a likable 'straight talker'? Or are we all suckers?

It's both. You have to understand that the way McCain deals with the national media is a strategy. He realized that reporters want to be treated differently than the way most politicians treat them, which is very carefully and being measured with what they say, going off the record a lot. And that's frustrating for reporters. What McCain figured out was not to be careful, not to go off the record, to return their calls and talk about anything for as long as they wanted. And the results have paid off very handsomely for him, because he gets the benefit of the doubt all the time.

Sen. Hillary Clinton: "I don't know what to do with men who are obsessed with me. I honestly have never understood it."

[...]

Chris Matthews: "It's not obsession."

If you have ever watched an episode of Hardball on MSNBC, you may find Chris Matthews' above statement a bit suspect...

Media coverage of religion has increased significantly since the 2004 elections. Unfortunately, the coverage has presented a skewed picture of religion in America -- one in which religious conservatives are the experts on mainstream issues. I'm sure you agree this is a far cry from reality. The fact is we live in a country in which 90 percent of our people identify themselves as religious, with conservatives representing only a small portion of that large religious community.

In a new Media Matters for America report -- "Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media" -- we document the media's coverage of religion since the 2004 elections. What we found was a dramatic oversimplification of the public debate and a consistent skewing of coverage in favor of conservatives....

Cross posted at DailKos

I wanted to update everyone on our new report -- "If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative."  If you haven't had a chance to view it, now is the time. The report documents how the right continues to dominate the Sunday talk shows.

Since the report's release we've seen a great response.  We've had many reputable blogs such as DailyKos, Huffington Post, and MyDD highlight our findings.  We've had Paul Waldman, our report's principal author, on radio shows like The Peter B. Collins Show, The Young Turks, and The Rachel Maddow Show to name a few.

On the Sunday after the midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years, viewers tuned in to NBC's Meet the Press to hear what the Democratic win meant for the country -- only to discover that host Tim Russert did not have any Democrats on at all. Instead, Russert's guests were Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (CT), who ran in the general election as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary. And after an election in which the public's opposition to the Iraq war was a central issue, Meet the Press hosted two guests who support the war.

http://www.SundayShowReport.com

But that incident is hardly an aberration. In a new report by Media Matters for America -- If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative: How the Right Continues to Dominate the Sunday Talk Shows, we show that the Sunday shows -- Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday -- have consistently given Republicans and conservatives an edge over their Democratic and progressive counterparts in the last two years, the period of the 109th Congress. And, as our analysis shows, the recent shift in power in Washington has yielded mixed results, at best.

OUR KEY FINDINGS:

Despite previous network claims that a conservative advantage existed on the Sunday shows simply because Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, only one show, ABC's This Week, has been roughly balanced between both sides overall since the congressional majority switched hands in the 2006 midterm elections.

Since the 2006 midterm elections, NBC's Meet the Press and CBS' Face the Nation have provided less balance between Republican and Democratic officials than Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox New Sunday despite the fact that Fox News Sunday remains the most unbalanced broadcast overall both before and after the election.

During the 109th Congress (2005 and 2006), Republicans and conservatives held the advantage on every show, in every category measured. All four shows interviewed more Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and progressives overall, interviewed more Republican elected and administration officials than Democratic officials, hosted more conservative journalists than progressive journalists, held more panels that tilted right than tilted left, and gave more solo interviews to Republicans and conservatives.

Now that Congress has switched hands, one would reasonably expect Democrats and progressives to be represented at least as often as Republicans and conservatives on the Sunday shows. Yet our findings for the months since the midterm elections show that the networks have barely changed their practices. Only one show - ABC's This Week - has shown significant improvement, having as many Democrats and progressives as Republicans and conservatives on since the election. On the other three programs, Republicans and conservatives continue to get more airtime and exposure.

In the months ahead, will the networks address the imbalance in their guest lineups? Or will they continue with business as usual?

We urge you to read the report and take action.  Tell the networks to address our findings and consider whether the Sunday shows serve the public interest by continuing to give conservatives the edge in setting the terms of the national debate.

On May 12th, Media Matters sponsored a panel discussion called "Why Media Matters: The Role of the Media in the Democratic Process" which details the essentials of the differing perspectives of media critics and the members of the press who are on the receiving end of that criticism. Often a hot topic in netroots circles, to be sure.

Many of the arguments that I've heard from both sides were detailed and eloquently stated. And it provides a one-stop shopping spree for those of us like me who are obsessed with the discussion of -- as Greg Sargent puts it the tagline of his blog Horse's Mouth -- the reporting of politics and the politics of reporting. Or, as Brattlerouser and Jamison Foser would remind us: It's the media, you rather-less-than-super-sharp person.

Media Matters described the panel, moderated by Media Matters founder, David Brock this way...

Eric Boehlert is an award-winning journalist who has written  extensively about media, politics, and pop culture. His new book is Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush.

 

Kathy Kiely, Congressional reporter, USA Today

 

Lynn Sweet, Washington D.C. bureau chief, Chicago-Sun Times

 

Dick Polman, national political reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer

 

Paul Waldman is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America. His new book is Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success.

Now, of course, Boehlert, Waldman and Brock represented the conventional wisdom of today's active progressive media watchdogs. Kathy Kiely and Lynn Sweet provided the media insiders perspective. But Dick Polman was there as the media insider who backed up the critics' claims.

The two sides, thought not mutually exclusive, boil down to this...