Washington Post 'Lacked Obama Probes'

The Washington Post's own watchdog has taken the unusual step of apologising to readers over its lack of probing investigations into now president-elect Obama and pro-Obama coverage.

The watchdog is particularly critical over its lack of scrutiny of Obama's background and early years.

The apology follows an investigation by the newspaper's own ombudsman, Debrah Howell, into the Post's coverage over the last year. The Orange Party has consistently criticised the US media for not doing its job properly and holding a candle up equally to both candidates.

The Washington Post is the leading political newspaper in the US. The Orange Party has tremendous respect for the Post, its journalists and distinguished record for political reporting. Around October 17, the newspaper endorsed Obama as a candidate and the media frenzy really began.

Howell and her team's lengthy and detailed examination of the Post's coverage ranges from issues, voters, fund-raising, the candidates' backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants, photos and page one leads.

There's much to be commended in the Post's coverage and praise for much of the Post's reporting but as Howell points out:

"Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama's acknowledged drug use as a teenager."

Those views chime with those of the Orange Party and respected former Sunday Times editor, Harold Evans, who made a similar and more scathing attack on these glaring omissions.

Howell dissects the 'count' in meticulous detail and concludes it was "lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories."

The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces (58) about McCain than there were about Obama (32).

Stories and photos about Obama in the news pages outnumbered those devoted to McCain. Post reporters, photographers and editors, like most of the media, just found Obama more newsworthy, more interesting. Journalists love superlatives and anything new.

Concerns were raised yesterday, by Matthew Parris of the London Times:

"And this whole thing could go very sour. A politician who has subtly insinuated himself into the imaginations of millions as a secret friend and the personal champion of all their hopes for the world may find their disappointment the more bitter in the end."

The Orange Party expressed similar, though more forceful concerns, the day after that night before.

Newspaper coverage is often poll-driven and the Post was no exception but that's never going to change. It had its fair share of focus on poll-driven issues.

The Orange Party would add its voice to the special praise given to the penetrating reporting of Dan Balz, one of the "best, most level-headed, incisive political reporters and analysts in newspapers".

And to the reality checks given by media critic, Howard Kurtz, often used as a steer by the Orange Party during those turbulent election times.

One gaping hole was in coverage of Obama's running mate and now vice-president elect, Joe Biden. The media went over the top with Palin and neglected Biden. Howell says: "They are right; it was a serious omission."

In general, Howell concludes: "Readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts."

In many ways what Howell says isn't new and has been backed up by other research such as studies from the Project for Excellence in Journalism but here is a newspaper which has the guts to shine a light on itself.

The Washington Post has its finger on the pulse of the US political scene and was one of the first newspapers in the US to establish its own ombudsman, looking at reader complaints about news coverage and monitoring standards. That in itself is reassuring and refreshing.

It was the Post's dogged reporting which helped break the Watergate Scandal leading to Nixon's resignation.

Years later the newspaper's then owner, Katherine Graham, gave a warning which holds as true today as it did then:

"We live in a dirty and dangerous world... I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows."

No politician is above scrutiny. Newspapers can make and break presidents. As Nixon found to his cost.

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Hold On Tight, McCain Could Just Win

Hold onto your seats. This could be a roller coaster of a ride. The fat lady hasn't even cleared her throat ready to sing, yet the media and opinion polls have all called it for Obama. But they don't count for zit. The media isn't electing a president nor are the opinion polls, American voters are. And the race is tightening by the day.  

Take away the media bias and opinion polls and the odds suddenly start to stack more in McCain's favour. 

Opinion polls, even the RCP average, are a snapshot of opinion of a very small sample. They are not voter intentions set in stone. 

There are just too many balls up in the air. Race, religion, the Bradley factor, the Florida factor, Obama's lack of experience and background. How can a snapsho opinion poll mean anything? If you want a prediction, a horoscope is far more entertaining.

Even taking opinion polls on face value, Obama needs a consistent double digit lead throughout the RCP average in order to win. The predicted landslide doesn't stack up.

Today, the Republican favoured and in the past accurate IBD/TIPP daily tracking poll shows McCain on 44.6%, Obama 46.7% with 8.7% undecided. Independents are shifting from Obama to McCain, who's making inroads in the midwest.

Obama hasn't shifted much in the polls since the summer. McCain's numbers have gone up and down like a yo-yo. 

And then there's Hillary, with her huge PUMA support base. A large number of Hillary's gals and guys may tactically vote McCain. Clinton's shot at the presidency in 2012 needs a McCain win. These Democrats, who have never forgiven Obama, are strung across the States and statistically their votes could swing it.

There's a huge mass of undecided voters too. They will decide only on the day they actually vote. 

They have been targeted by the hornet's nest of Obama's background and associations, summed up today by Stanley Kurtz of NRO. 

No matter who or what you believe, mud sticks. And there's an awful lot of mud flying around. All part of the McCain strategy to drip-feed Obama's experience, background and credibility to sway those undecided.

Former Sunday Times editor, Harold Evans, delivered a damning indictment of the blatant media bias towards Obama. American folk are no fools either. The media may think and hope they have the result in the bag. They are not the same as the regular American voter. 

Then there are the battleground States, where the election is actually decided. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. All in Obama's bag. Now all tightening. 

Even tracking polls are putting McCain and Obama tied among independent voters. A week ago, Obama was leading.

Much has been said of the youth vote who have turned out in their thousands as Obama cheerleaders. In Florida, where 3.4 million people have already voted, only 15 per cent of them were under age 35.

The media has rightly focussed on the huge and highly successful Obama effort to actually get voters to turn out to vote. But they have ignored the almost legendary Republican effort. 

While it would be naïve to discount race, this is much more a cause for the media than voters. Regular Americans don't give a stuff about the race of their president. It is only a serious issue among a few voters in a very few States.

Many naively compare the US election to a UK general election. They are two quite different beasts. 

In the US, voters vote for a president-elect. There could easily be a Al Gore moment. Even if Obama 'wins' the popular vote, he could still lose the state by state electoral vote, the magic 270, and with it the presidency. The president isn't sworn into office until January. That's a long time in politics. And that's why Hillary is playing it cool. 

Voters vote for a president and vice-president on the same ticket. The VP's sole job is to be on standby and fill a dead man's shoes. 

Voters have to decide, whoever is president, do they want Biden or Palin as president-in-waiting. And that makes for a whole different ball game.

Each US voter jealously guards their citizenship and is intensely patriotic. Voting for McCain or Obama boils down to a straight choice. Who will make the strongest commander-in chief and who will have the most trusty hand on the economic tiller. 

And that could boil down to an equally straight choice between an experienced politician, not tarred with the Bush brush, over a smooth talking guy with hopes and dreams and a slick Chicago marketing machine behind him.

The media has completely underestimated McCain and got totally carried away with Obama. That maybe their downfall. But then journalists, like opinion polls can always get it wrong.

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McCain Hits Out At Obama Khalidi Tape

Much of the US media took a break from its blatant pro-Obama coverage yesterday, to highlight a controversial Obama video which the McCain team says is being deliberately suppressed. 

The video, of Obama at a farewell party with PLO activists and former weather underground terrorists, is causing a media fury in the closing days of the race, with both McCain and Palin accusing a Los Angeles newspaper of deliberately refusing to release it. 


The row, reported heavily on Fox News, has finally been picked up and hinted at here in the UK by the BBC's Matthew Price who is following the McCain campaign. He suggests this may be part of McCain's 'October surprise', highlighted by the Orange Party last week. 

Both McCain and Palin have accused the Los Angeles Times of "intentionally suppressing" the video which shows Obama at a going-away party in 2003 for former PLO spokesman, Rashid Khalidi, attended by radical Palestinian activists and former Weather Underground terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. 

In a statement, the Los Angeles Times said it had written about the event in April and would not release the tape because of a promise made to the source who provided it. 

McCain and Palin said this was media bias as the LA Times has endorsed Obama's candidacy.

AP news has reported a fair and balanced account of the row. The tape is causing outrage on Republican and pro-Israel web sites. 

doug ross@Journal, who has seen clips of the tape, claims Obama talks to the audience during a toast, congratulating Khalidi for his work saying "Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine" plus there's been "genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis."

Meanwhile political columnist and commentator on radial Islamic terrorism, Debbie Schlussel, who first got wind of the story, says the video was obtained from Arab American Action Network (AAAN) founder Abunimah, after she'd featured photos of Obama and wife Michelle seated with LO advisor, Edward Sad, at another AAAN banquet (pictured above).

She believes the newspaper learned of the other AAAN annual banquet dinner and the existence of the tape, at which Abunimah, Obama, Ayers, Dohrn, and Khalidi were present, after contacting Abunimah about the photos. 

Khalidi is a professor of Middle East Studies at Columbia University and a long-time friend of Obama's. 

McCain also has ties to Khalidi through a group that Khalidi helped found 15 years ago. 

Palin has criticised Obama for having links with Ayers, who was a founder of the radical domestic terrorist group the Weather Underground.

The existence of the tape and its contents has been swirling around the internet for weeks. The LA Times and most of its staff are strong Obama supporters. 

What is clear, is that this is part of the McCain strategy to focus on Obama's inexperience, credibility and character in an effort to sway undecided voters. The tape, other accusations and the state lawsuits over citizenship are all part of that October Surprise in these closing days. 

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Is McCain Planning An October Surprise?

Much of the media think the US election is a done deal. Politicians and newspapers are falling over themselves to throw their weight behind Obama. This may be the new Independence Day for liberal America but both sides know it's not over until the fat lady sings and McCain could spring an October surprise. 

The misguided line taken by much of the Obama supporting media was encapsulated well in yesterday's Guardian. Obama is riding high in the polls, his campaign fund is breaking all records and to top it all, Colin Powell has final come out in support. Victory is now a forgone conclusion, champagne has been ordered and the party invites sent out. 

Sorry to be a party pooper, but all three gleefully seized on by the media were not seized upon by the Obama campaign team. All three show Obama's weaknesses. His campaign team know this and were quick to play them down. 

A lead of 5.8% as shown by the RCP average does not spell victory with 14 days still to go. Al Gore was down by 5.5 points on October 21. Still down on election day, Gore went on to win the election but lost the presidency. By this polling day, it could well be neck and neck.

Swollen campaign funds is not a sign of support, it just means Obama has been much sharper. While both camps signed up to use public funds for the campaign, Obama tore up the agreement and used private funding sources instead, something Obama has admitted, putting him at a huge financial advantage. 

Obama is already on dodgy ground over his private funding which does not come under the same close scrutiny as using taxpayers cash, except funds which are suspected of coming from outside the US. 

Powell's support was greeted with a strange sort of glee by the media. Powell is a dove not a hawk but, as Bush's poodle, he helped take the US and UK to war on a lie and lied to the UN over Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, based on dodgy photographs, discredited yellowcake and a debunked Iraq dossier. 

His support for Obama was seen by some as a black American brotherhood, something Obama has been very careful to avoid and that may galvanise some support for the Republicans. 

Obama's task between now and November 4 is to keep his cool, drive home the simple and consistent message of change and hope and make these remaining undecided voters comfortable with his background. 

Obama has a few tricks up his sleeve to assuage voters, like the publicity stunt taking time out to "visit his sick grandmother" in Hawaii.

McCain of course will try to do the opposite. Make voters feel uneasy and uncomfortable, while casting himself as a safe and trusted pair of hands. This has been drip-fed, ratcheted up and ratcheted down throughout the campaign.

Until recently, it suited McCain to be the underdog. After all, there are two in this Republican marriage and Palin is the attack dog. 

The line of attack on links with ex-domestic terrorist, William Ayers, and other dodgy characters from Obama's Chicago past, may have run their course. 

There's still some mileage left in his links with black power pastor, Jeremiah Wright, but voters can be turned off by too much negative campaigning so close to the finishing line. 

McCain's October surprise will focus on Obama's inexperience, credibility and background, probably all three rolled into one. Sowing the seeds of that unease with the millions of undecided voters to make them throw a wobbly before they finally have to make up their minds. 

What will McCain use as the hook to hang this on? The McCain team is not giving the game away but it may have something to do with Berg's lawsuit over Obama's citizenship which is currently being blocked by Obama and the DNC.

Many think and hope it's a done deal and this election's outcome is set in stone. Both Obama and McCain know that nothing could be further from the truth. 

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Obama's The Loser In Down and Dirty Campaign

With much of the media fawning over Obama like a bunch of demented high school kids, the McCain campaign has finally come out fighting and Obama has fallen into the trap. 

The campaign is getting down and dirty. McCain is having to do what the media should have been doing a long while ago - holding a candle up to the characters of both candidates and probing for weaknesses. 

Until now, the Obama campaign has kept its cool. Generally they've risen above the claims. 

Links with terrorist, Ayes, black power pastor, Wright and crook, Rezo were cast aside as lies and smears. And, with the media backing, they go away with it.

Palin's attack, accusing Obama of "palling around" with unrepentant former Weather Underground terrorist, William Ayers, brought a swift rebuttal. That's to be expected. But they then followed it through with counter-claims. A bad move from the Obama camp, it played into McCain's hands. 

It was a weak attack. McCain was one of five senators investigated 20 years ago by the Senate over Arizona tycoon Charles Keating, who was convicted of fraud after his bank collapsed.

But McCain's Keating and Palin's own 'Troopergate' are spot news. Headlines today, forgotten tomorrow. But it gives the McCain camp the excuse to hit back even harder. And Obama has more to lose.

It was observed here a while ago that the McCain strategy is all in the timing. First talk up the strengths of your candidate's character - a Vietnam war hero - then demolish the character of the opponent. 

With a month to go and flagging in the polls, the McCain team can unleash its final shots in a tightly controlled campaign grid. 

Links with Ayers and the Annenberg Foundation was the first shot, despite the media's best efforts to play down Ayres as just a "hippy radial". 

This was a Weatherman - a domestic terrorist whose bombing campaign struck fear into the heart of the US establishment at the time of the Vietnam war. Obama served on a charity board with Ayers. His links to him are much more than "a guy who lives in my neighbourhood.’' 

More of Obama's dodgy Chicago characters won't be far behind. Attack-dog Palin has already said voters should pay more attention to Obama's relationship with his former church pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. By voters, she means the McCain campaign.

Expect more on Obama’s key role in Ayers’s Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), his two-decade membership of a Black Power church and his relationship with fraudster, Tony Rezko, along with Obama's true source of funding and most importantly, his background and eligibility to run for president. 

Counter attacks with revelations over skeleton's in both Palin's and McCain's cupboards pale into insignificance. 

Both sides are getting down and dirty and that's just how it should be when you are about to elect the most powerful person on the planet. 

Tonight both presidential candidates square up for round two of their TV debates. 

This election will be decided on the trust and the strength of character of both candidates in the closing few weeks of the campaign. 

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Palin Digs Heels Into Obama's Terrorist Links

Disturbing revelations over Obama’s background and terrorist links have been brought out into the open, as part of McCain's campaign to expose weakness in his character and fitness for US president, as the race for the White House enters its final month.

The attack comes from Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, who has highlighted Obama's links with unrepentant former Weather Underground terrorist, William Ayers, which has been an open secret in the US Main stream media for some while. 

Palin's aides said the time had come to take the gloves off and dig the heels in. Expect more in the coming weeks. 

The US blogsphere is rife with details of Obama's links with Ayes which, with exceptions such as the Wall Street Journal, have been given only a passing reference by much of the Main stream media, which has firmly nailed its colours to the Obama mast and accepted him at face value.

The attacks on Obama's character chimes with TV ads by outside groups, questioning Obama's ties to Ayers, convicted former Obama fundraiser Antoin 'Tony' Rezko and Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Attack-dog Palin accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists" because of his association with the former 1960s radical, stepping up the campaign's effort to portray Obama as unacceptable to American voters.

Palin's reference was to Ayers, one of the founders of the group, the Weather Underground. Its members took credit for bombings, including non-fatal explosions at the Pentagon and US Capitol, during the Vietnam War era. 

Obama served on a charity board with Ayers several years ago and has been at pains to play down this relationship, dismissing Ayers as just ‘a guy who lives in my neighbourhood,’ and ‘not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis.’ 

Palin told a group of donors, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She also said, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

Ayers, the former Weatherman, became a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He founded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) in conjunction with $50m funder, the Annenberg Foundation. Obama was brought in to be CAC's first chairman of the board. Trinity United Church of Christ, headed by Pastor Jeremiah Wright, also received funds. 

In the Wall Street Journal, Stanley Kurtz, writes that documents in the CAC archives make it clear that Ayers and Obama were partners in the CAC.

Kurtz has also been trying to discover just who appointed Obama to the CAC board.

One unsettled question is how Obama, a former community organiser fresh out of law school, could vault to the top of a new foundation?

Kurtz here adds that Obama has sought to obscure the role Ayers played in choosing him to lead the CAC and also details how the CAC tried to obstruct Kurtz’s inquiries by blocking his access to the records.

Nor is the relationship with Ayers the only question-mark over Obama’s associations with organisations specifically designed to put Obama in the White House, as WorldNetDaily and Global Labor and Politics reveal.

Questions over Obama's background and links with dodgy Chicago characters, have been raised by the Orange Party on a number of occasions. What is startling is that if any other candidate had even a fleeting relationship with Ayers, his presidential bid would have ended before it even began. 

Yet details have emerged about Obama’s key role in Ayers’s CAC and its funding of radical groups, his two-decade membership of a Black Power church and his relationship with fraudster, Tony Rezko.

Melanie Phillips, who has given a detailed account of Obama's links in the Spectator, sums it up well: 

"Obama appears to sit on a nexus between Marxist revolutionary activists, unrepentant former terrorists, Black Power racists, Chicago mobsters – oh, and a Saudi who is trying to buy up America. And yet despite all of this, virtually no-one in the mainstream media is asking any questions. Has there ever been a more staggering, surreal and scary race to the White House?"

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McCain Wins On Points In Meaty Clash

In one of the most meaty presidential debates ever seen on TV, presentation and policies dominated the contest, with Obama scoring well on domestic issues and McCain on foreign policy. Professional pragmatism versus smooth-talking idealism and McCain won on points. 

The media is already spinning away to contact and convince voters that their man won but away from the biased reporting, the consensus seems to be that McCain had the edge. 

It's all a far cry from the time when stubble-faced Nixon sweated it out with cool kid Kennedy. Now the US is facing the biggest economic meltdown since the 1930s while fighting two wars. Voters are worried about their homes and jobs. Paranoia about global Islamic terrorism takes centre stage. 

Obama came across as just too rehearsed. McCain was right at home with a folksy style, talking about foreign policy. Several times Obama seemed to agree with McCain.

Obama constantly looked back, blaming Bush and McCain for everything that’s ever been wrong in the world.

McCain will not convince the die-hard Obama supporters but he held his ground and that’s what the American people are looking for.

He was cool, informed and forceful. In these hard times voters just want a strong commander-in-chief and a trusted hand on the economic tiller. 

Where Obama did score better was on the domestic front, where he tried  to link McCain to Bush's  failed "economic philosophy". 

But Obama did little to convince voters that he’s experienced enough to handle foreign affairs and defence.  

Political bloggers are having a field day but in the Main stream media it's hard to get an unbiased opinion. Perhaps only the Wall Street Journal can be relied on, noting that both won in their comfort zones:

"The first Presidential debate last night was notable for playing to type. Neither candidate broke from talking points, neither one made a gaffe, and both men won on the grounds where they are most comfortable -- John McCain on foreign policy, and Barack Obama on domestic issues."

McCain needs something to lift his spirits and bounce back in his flagging polls after painful Palin's disaster of a TV interview. And last night's first set-piece TV debate may just swing it. 

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