How About Some Fact Checking?

This morning Whaaaaaan Williams takes the Obama - Rev. Wright issue to the right. Here he is whining to Renee Montagne:

"...that's the problematic heart of this speech, Renee, the question is why Senator Obama maintained a relationship with Reverend Wright - a man who has said things like you know the government is pumping drugs into the Black community or spreading AIDS among people of color and has said that America's foreign policy is somehow equal to that of the terrorists who attacked on 9-11" (Could Williams be angry at someone equating the millions killed by US foreign policy with the mere thousands murdered by the 9-11 terrorists?)

Then this evening Michelle Norris hammers away at Rev. Otis Moss who is succeeding Rev. Wright regarding the "inflammatory" sermons of his predecessor. Honestly, shouldn't reporters simply evaluate the content of Wright's allegations? Why would someone accuse the US government of being involved in the drug trade? Of course investigating US government cooperation in narco-trafficking can end up costing a reporter his livelihood, and his life.

I have an idea. NPR can do it's famous "fact checking" as they do after candidate debates - and then just let the chips fall where they will. Wouldn't that be interesting?

Scott the Talking Horsley

Well dang, seems like two Democrats were missing from the Iowa debate last night. Kucinich and Gravel didn't pass muster for the Des Moines Register because they don't have rented office space for their statewide campaign director. Gravel has pointed out the creepy silence that greets the erased candidate and Scott Horsley gave it his own little ironic spin when he said, "The debate also provided a forum for some of the lesser known candidates in the race." Man, is that rich or what? No mention that Kucinich has garnered more online progressive Democratic support than any other candidate. Even CBS, in covering the exclusion, noted that Kucinich pulls the same national support as Biden or Richardson, and more than Dodd.

NPR joining in this erasure of left-leaning candidates is especially painful given that no votes have been cast, the Iowa vote is just three weeks away, and as Horsley said, "Half the Iowa caucus goers say they're still willing to change their minds about which Democratic candidate to support..."

Wait, wait, don't tell me, how many candidates was that?

"Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop."

Oh yeah, six...

Erasing Candidates

Did anyone else notice that in ATC's coverage of the NPR/Iowa Public Radio debate among Democrats there was nothing about Kucinich and Gravel? That's a shame because the broadcast of the debate ( I heard about an hour of it) was commendable in that all the candidates were given time to respond to the topics and the discussions were interesting.

It seems a real disservice for NPR news to weight coverage of the candidates at this point when not a single vote has been cast. They've essentially taken it on themselves to narrow the field to Clinton, Obama, and Edwards.