Beyond the Pale

As some of you know, I wanted to be a journalist when I was in college. I studied hard, learned to write concise, yet gripping accounts of events and people. Thanks to my instructors and mentors, I earned a healthy respect for solid reporting done as objectively as possible, a respect I still hold.

Unfortunately, today's poor excuse for journalism doesn't have the same respect I do. Most of it blurs the lines between news and opinion, and most people either don't notice or don't care. This election season has been the worst I've ever seen, journalistically speaking. Most of them are so far in Barack Obama's back pocket, they have stitch marks.

But the way to counter absurdly pro-Obama reporting isn't absurdly anti-Obama reporting. A news story, if you could even call it that, appeared on World Net Daily proclaiming that Obama was linked to anti-Christian violence. After reading the story, it turns out Obama was linked to this "anti-Christian violence" by supporting Raila Odinga of Kenya. Odinga is accused of fanning the flames of tribal violence sparked after he lost a 2007 election for President of Kenya.

Can you say "John McCain and John Hagee" boys and girls?

If that wasn't bad enough, World Net Daily's "news" story featured information from an upcoming book written...by a World Net Daily staffer. This is a clear conflict of interest, one that I cannot overlook or condone. Imagine if the New York Times ran a front page story about John McCain clubbing baby seals as a means to fight cancer, and that frong page story was written by Maureen Dowd or Frank Rich. How loud would the conservative outrage be? How many Republicans would denounce the story as pure propaganda?

I don't like Obama at all, but this isn't the way to beat him.

Also, let's not forget that Obama said last week that Republicans and conservatives would try to malign him for being different instead of for coming up with different ideas. I mentioned in a previous blog post that Obama preemptively played the race card so he can set up any criticism of him and his policies in racial terms.

Thanks to World Net Daily, Obama has an opening to say, "See? I told you so!"

With friends like these, McCain doesn't need enemies.