I'm in the minority here, wishing Parry had done a better job of raising an interesting point about coverage of Obama now and tying it to the treatment of Kucinich and Gore. The latter gentlemen are buried so far down and without links, making them hard to assess, unless one has read the evidence elsewhere. Why not make use of hyperlinks on a webiste? If Parry had simply attacked Milbank for taking a phrase from Obama's speech out of context as an example of its opposite and pointed to a troubling trend as, before explaining its relationship to Kucinich and Gore, I would have found this piece more effective. Instead, Parry undermines his eventual argument by starting out w. a statement of opinion as fact, as the describing the ... More »

A blistering article critical of Washington Post's Dana Milbank's distortion of an Obama's quote, twisting it to call him "a persumptuous nominee". Her distortion was parroted and expanded on by other media. The article finishes with an examination of how the media smeared Al Gore. At issue is the wretched practice of journalists to pick up sensational tidbits without bothering to check their validity, which used to be called research or verifying the facts, and spreading them throughout the media. Why let the truth get in the way? Sensationalism sells papers or gets higher ratings. Sadly it's democracy which is the loser.

A very good story. Unfortunately mainline journalist seem to think they must be fair and describe fair as even and that is wrong. If this article is correct Dana Milbank deserved to be fired.

This is a thoughtful and insightful analysis of the deliberate media distortion of statements made by Democratic candidates. The links provided help support the analysis of the media’s misrepresentation of statements that result in the warping of the record to the point that what is reported has been the exact opposite of what was said. The media’s willingness to perpetuate the alteration is distressing. The recent WaPo deliberate distortion of Obama’s statement is to frame Obama as being ‘uppity’ is racist and should not be tolerated. There is another story today, link below, that shoes more of the deliberate bias against Gore.

An excellent "field log" that documents "tactics" in a nearly ubiquitous "strategy" on the part of the print, cable, and mainstream media services to control the outcome of an election. Balance is difficult to evaluate since it is (in my recall of events, accurate) log of historical quotes compiled to present a case in defense of Senator Obama about foul play specifically against Sen. Obama's "character" while documenting the "tactic" as a Republican mainstay in any electoral cycle. The well sequenced evidence clearly supports the premise of the article. The defense rarely gives sway to the opposition, so it is not presented. Fairness is in the eye of the beholder, but in this case, the "pattern" of character attacks support ... More »

Slanderous misquotes and slant in the mainstream media is documented in detail with regard to the fake stories using misquotes of Al Gore. This same type of press behavior is shown in the Washington Post and subsequent prominently featured right wing media shows regarding a recent Obama statement. Parry provides the full quote and the context to clearly show the misleading reporting and commentary.

Parry describes a pattern of behavior at the Washington Post and other so-called mainstream media, in which candidates and office holders who are not considered "Beltway insiders" are accused of being presumptuous and even delusionary - and in the case of Barack Obama, "uppity" - or else described in an unnecessarily demeaning way. These accusations are based on quotations taken out of context or even misquoted in order to make the intended point.

There are some good counter arguments in the article that are always important to note, especially in a presidential campaign. However, this reads more like a personal attack on Milbank rather than an informative piece on the Obama quote taken out of context.