The Fournier Associated Press

After a brilliant speech full of details and tough talk, the Associated Press, now under the direction of John McCain's friend Ron Fournier (who became Washington Bureau Chief earlier this year), released a supposed analysis of the speech. The piece was not written by Fournier himself, but in recent weeks it has been clear that Fournier controls the political pieces released by the AP. The article written by Charles Babington made it into the hands of Keith Olbermann, who read the "analysis" after it started going out over the wire. This was Olbermann's reaction to the propaganda:

It is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and web sites is a remarkable failure of that news organization.

Charles Babington, find a new line of work.

Even long time conservative writers and commentators thought the speech was extremely good, and answered a great many of the questions people have about Barack Obama. Here's what Editor and Publisher, America's oldest journal covering the newspaper industry, said about the bipartisan acclaim for the oratory:

With rare exception, nearly all of the top commentators and reporters on the three cable news networks had hailed Obama's speech as something new and powerful, and filled with specifics, and predicted it would have a positive effect on his chances vs. John McCain. This hallelujah chorus included conservatives such as Bill Kristol and Pat Buchanan and the longtime Republican David Gergen, as well as Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams. Buchanan called it the best and most important political convention speech he had ever heard, going back 48 years.

Ron Fournier's well honed McCain propaganda campaign chose to present it in a different way. Charles Babington:

Barack Obama, whose campaign theme is "change we can believe in," promised Thursday to "spell out exactly what that change would mean."

But instead of dwelling on specifics, he laced the crowning speech of his long campaign with the type of rhetorical flourishes that Republicans mock and the attacks on John McCain that Democrats cheer. The country saw a candidate confident in his existing campaign formula: tie McCain tightly to President Bush, and remind voters why they are unhappy with the incumbent.

Babington also originally misreported the length of the speech, further undermining his credibility as a qualified and objective journalist. The speech was 44 minutes long, not 35. That mistake was corrected not long after Olbermann pointed it out on the air.

Newspapers all over the country print these analyses from the Associated Press. If anybody went to bed before the speech started, or chose to read about the speech rather than watch it, when they open their newspaper this morning they are likely to find Babington's "analysis." A growing number of people have called for their local newspapers to drop the very expensive wire service from the Associated Press, citing a long list of biased pieces released since Ron Fournier took over.

The Maynard Institute for Journalism released a column concerning Fournier's bias in leading the Washington Bureau. Ironically, the column on the perceived bias was written in a very objective and factual manner. Here's some of Richard Prince's column:

The Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, already under attack for a perceived tilt toward Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, wrote on Saturday that Sen. Barack Obama's pick of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate says "something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old Illinois senator worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack."

It was headlined, "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence."

"The Biden pick is the next logistical step in an Obama campaign that has become more negative — a strategic decision that may be necessary but threatens to run counter to his image," it continued.

The left-leaning political group MoveOn.org said Monday of Fournier's piece: "That sounded more like right-wing FOX than an unbiased news organization.

"This isn't an isolated incident for the AP reporter who wrote this story, Ron Fournier -- who was recently appointed as the AP's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Media watchdog group Media Matters wrote a report showing that Fournier's presidential coverage has consistently smeared Democrats and favored John McCain . . . ." as Joe Strupp reported for Editor & Publisher.

Pedigreed journalists feel the direction Fournier has taken the AP undermines the sanctity of objective journalism, and further endangers the print industry at a time when it is extremely vulnerable. 24 hour cable news and the Internet have increasingly allowed people to get their news without buying newspapers. Fournier's poorly disguised attacks have not helped matters at all, and come as a sad reminder of the lies the American people have been told for the last eight years.

CNN: The New Fox News

Atrios brought a CNN press release to my attention. Here are the new additions to the high quality team of unbiased journalists:

· David Brody, senior national correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. A veteran journalist of more than 20 years, Brody writes the political blog, “The Brody File.”
· Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist and former campaign consultant for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and corporate consulting firm.
· Dana Milbank, a Washington Post staff writer and author of the thrice-weekly “Washington Sketch” column. A veteran of political coverage, he has also worked for The New Republic and The Wall Street Journal, and his latest book is Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government.
· Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist and currently the political director and Washington editor-at-large for HuffingtonPost.com. In a previous role, she was chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
· Tara Wall, deputy editorial page editor and columnist for The Washington Times. Previously, she served as director of the office of public affairs at the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and as director of outreach communications for the Republican National Committee.

Dana Milbank is the brainiac who wrote the article painting Obama as arrogant and presumptuous based on a quote taken completely out of context. Just to rehash, here are the original words:

It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.

And here's what Milbank wrote:

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

That succinct bit of comparison came from Mathew Yglesias, and about a million other people.

Steve Benen wrote at length about the wingnutification of CNN. Anybody who watches the channel probably already knew how far the channel has gone to the right. I personally quit watching it when I became concerned I might smash my television set one day. Somebody referred to CNN as the "liberal media" the other day, which caused me to laugh until tears poured down my cheeks. They apparently never watch anything but Fox News, or they would know that CNN could bring them great pleasure.

Tony Snow worked there before he died. We all know Tony "Never Tell The Truth" Snow. I think I waited long enough to finally say this without being called insensitive. I hope he's in a heaven full of liberals, progressives, African Americans, GLBT people, poor people and honest folks. He would probably consider that hell.

Frances Frago Townsend also got a job from CNN. Townsend, the former White House homeland security advisor, approves of torture, and everything else the Bush administration does or has done. Townsend said of our use of torture, "... we start with the least harsh measures first..." and stop "... if someone becomes cooperative." Nothing screams objective journalism like employing an advocate of torture.

Hey, at least they threw in one token Democrat. Yeah, that will get me to watch it again.