Read it: Obama’s secret weapon: the media.

Also: Pollsters cast doubt on online polls favoring Obama.

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From the NY Times:

Some Obama supporters in the blogosphere were up in arms at Ms. Fowler. They doubt that she really supports Mr. Obama, have called her a plant for Mrs. Clinton and suggested she was deceptive in getting into the fund-raiser.

Fowler told the newspaper “that she was initially reluctant to write about what Mr. Obama had said because she actually supports him — which partly explains why she was at the fund-raiser in the first place and why there was a four-day delay between the event and the publication of her post. Ultimately, she said, she decided that if she didn’t write about it, she wouldn’t be worth her salt as a journalist.”

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After the supposedly serious-minded Washington Post-owned Slate.com sent out the following e-mail PR blast on Thursday night pointing to a new feature called “Hillary Deathwatch,” several Hillary Clinton supporters are decrying rampant misogyny and bias at the online magazine (the male authors of the piece, Christopher Beam and Chadwick Martin, are believed to be in their early- to mid- twenties). If not bias, just plain crassness:

The Slate.com article also depicts a cartoon Clinton caricature on a sinking ship.

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Yes, that’s the Politico’s Jonathan Martin cozying up to Meghan McCain. The daughter of John McCain recently posted the picture on her blog.

Meghan also recently shared a tale about Martin cooking ribs with her dad and bringing her mom, Cindy, flowers when he visited the family’s Arizona ranch.

Is this journalism or a courtship?

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…why several reporters who were previously invited to attend a taping of The View today, which was to feature a Barbara Walters interview with Sen. Barack Obama, were suddenly dis-invited from the event? Is an announcement going to made during the taping that producers hope to keep secret until Friday when the taped program is expected to air? Several of The View ladies, including Whoopi Goldberg, have already endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

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The thought process seems a tad counterintuitive:

Journalists, for instance, have become partners with the Clinton campaign in pretending that the contest is closer than it really is. Most coverage breathlessly portrays the race as a down-to-the-wire sprint between two well-matched candidates, one only slightly better situated than the other to win in August at the national convention in Denver.

[snip]

One important, if subliminal, reason is self-interest. Reporters and editors love a close race — it’s more fun and it’s good for business.

The media are also enamored of the almost mystical ability of the Clintons to work their way out of tight jams, as they have done for 16 years at the national level. That explains why some reporters are inclined to believe the Clinton campaign when it talks about how she’s going to win on the third ballot at the Democratic National Convention in August.

That’s certainly possible — and, to be clear, we’d love to see the race last that long — but it’s folly to write about this as if it is likely.

What do you think?

P.S. Matt Drudge is already linking to the Politico’s story.

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Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, has posted the following video on her blog, in which she says that Politico reporters brought her mom, Cindy, a bouquet of flowers when they visited the McCain Sedona ranch and cabin this past weekend for a big Spring Break-style party.

Journalists giving presents to their interview subjects is generally frowned upon.

Newsweek’s Holly Bailey is also shown in the video with a wine glass in hand, swinging playfully on a tire swing on the McCain estate. Megan says, too, that Politico’s Jonathan Martin helped her dad barbecue some of his “famous ribs” during the soiree.

“This is much better than Washington, D.C.,” Cindy McCain is heard saying in the video.

Yeah, we bet. But, jeez, haven’t average non-elite Americans been complaining for ages that the glitzy D.C. press has gotten much too close to the politicos they cover? This Sedona Spring Break romp will do little to ease their fears.

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DALLAS (AP) — The founder of a prestigious institute on media and politics added his voice Saturday to the chorus of complaint over perceived press bias in favor of Democrat Barack Obama.

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The Larry Sinclair story has caught the attention of Bill Cunningham, a controversial radio host who frequently appears on Sean Hannity’s TV and radio shows. Cunningham drew loads of media attention this past week when Sen. John McCain denounced his noting of Sen. Barack Obama’s middle name during a McCain campaign event.

Sinclair tells Big Head DC he may be soon asked to tell his story to Cunningham’s large “Live On Sunday Night” radio audience.

While the U.S. mainstream media has been slow to cover Sinclair’s allegations to date, the Canadian mainstream media is taking note. Sinclair is scheduled to record an appearance on the the popular “The Standard” interview program on Wednesday, which airs on TV stations throughout Canada. Hosted by journalist Andrew Dawson, recent guests on the program include Salman Rushdie, Clay Aiken and Anne Rice.

Earlier: BHDC EXCLUSIVE Interview With Sen. Obama’s Accuser; Sinclair Discusses Polygraph, Plans

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Looks like Crain’s New York Business reporter Matthew Flamm royally screwed up with a doozie of a “report” today, which indicated Bill O’Reilly might be “anchoring” FNC’s Ohio and Texas primary coverage Tuesday night. This guy doesn’t just have egg on his face – he has an entire omelet. As soon as we saw this story, alarm bells went off. Anyone who covers FOX knows that Brit Hume would never be dethroned from anchoring the network’s political coverage.

As one wag us, “Just the fact that the notion of O’Reilly anchoring election coverage even passed Flamm’s smell test is off the charts. This guy should run fleeing from the media beat immediately before he suffers any further embarrassment.”

Big Head DC looked at some of Flamm’s previous “reporting” on Fox News and that turned out to be wrong as well. In September of 2006, he asserted that “FNC suffering from popular disaffection with Republican policies and the declining ratings could pose problems for cable subscription fees.”

It’s widely known that FNC made millions off the renewal deals charging nearly $1.00 per sub in the Fall of 2006 — in fact, News Corp is still referring to the profits made off these deals in their earnings reports nearly two years later.

Not to mention, is Flamm kidding in the way he referred to the ratings? Yeah, CNN and MSNBC have had big numbers with the Hillary-Obama debates – any network would – you could put them on the Weather Channel and get seven million viewers, too. Still, both networks have been unable to sustain the viewership.

In light of all this, we hear Flamm is being referred to as “Matthew Flailing” in some media circles today. The bigger question remains: how did such a woefully inaccurate story make it to print? Some insiders are even wondering whether Flamm will even have a job come Monday.

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