02.21.08 Morning Briefing
From the Desk of Steve Elliott

Today, the NYTimes formally launched its attack campaign on John McCain with an unsubstantiated near-allegation of an adulterous relationship with a lobbyist from eight years ago.

This comes after nearly constant promotion of McCain as the "most electable maverick" by the liberal media elites. After anointing McCain, the liberal media are now turning on him as we make the turn toward the general election.

Considering there is no new evidence here in an eight-year-old story, the NYTimes' actions today are perhaps the clearest example of that paper's bias since the paper published MoveOn.org's "General Betray Us" ad. The Times obviously had the story in its back pocket when its editors endorsed McCain a few weeks ago. Why wasn't this story published moths ago, or at least when McCain began his serious run up the polls? Clearly, the Times propped up McCain to serve its interests in having him win the Republican nomination.

Media-Anointed Candidates Winning
Ann Coulter makes an interestering argument that it is no accident that the media-anointed candidates are winning. Coulter says the McCain-Feingold laws have created a climate which strongly favor the liberal media:

"By prohibiting speech by anyone else, the campaign-finance laws have vastly magnified the power of the media – which, by the way, are wholly exempt from speech restrictions under campaign-finance laws."

I can tell you that our Grassfire.org team has faced this barrier. Grassfire.org could not have written an "endorsement" like the New York Times or even a report similar to the one written about McCain without wandering dangerously close to prohibited "electioneering." The same holds true for a for-profit company. But the media get a free pass.

Our friends at the Media Research Center are working to stop the media's election year agenda. Go here for more.

More on the web:

Larry Kudlow on Clinton: It's Over

Karl Rove on Obama's Vulnerability

Grassfire.org petition to end earmarks