I’ve had MSNBC on all day and I’ve heard virtually nothing about the situation in Iraq, despite the developing story regarding the increase in violence and the battles in Basra.

Of course, they’ve given plenty of air time to Barack Obama’s bowling score and the Monica Lewinsky questions lobbed at Chelsea Clinton.

The mayhem at Fox News this morning shows that some members of that organization are becoming uncomfortable with Fox’s attempts to destroy Obama and distort everything he says.

This morning, one anchor on Fox News literally walked off the set after his two-co-anchors continuously tried to distort Obama’s statements and take them out of context.

Then, Chris Wallace came on air and said he was watching the program for two hours and expressed his disappointment that the program was basically engaged in “Obama-bashing” all morning, especially on a day when Obama was being endorsed by Bill Richardson and we have the passport controversy.

Good for Wallace. It’s nice to see he hasn’t completely forgotten the concept of journalistic integrity.

After Tim Russert’s ridiculous attempt at guilt by association against Obama in last night’s debate regarding Farrakhan, Attytood has some interesting questions for Tim Russert on whether he will “denounce and reject” Don Imus. Since he recently went back on his show, we shouldn’t hold our breath.

Of course, the whole issue is absurd. There’s nothing wrong with Russert asking Obama about this issue, but his “holier than thow” attitude was disgraceful, and his attempt to read Farrakhan’s outrageous statements AFTER Obama denouced them was a lame attempt to add some soundbites to the MSNBC-sponsored debate. Good taste and fairness be damned when you can get a controversial clip that will be played over and over again on all the networks.

A pro like Russert should know better, but he’s turning into a caricature of himself. Catching politicians in contradictions is important, but it’s not the ONLY thing that matters. At the Cleveland debate, issues like education, forclosures and poverty were not addressed.

It’s not just about Obama. Russert was extremely rude when he cut off Hillary numerous times during the debate. He repeated several times his assertion that she changed her position on NAFTA. As an Obama supporter I’m glad he brought up the point, but he showed little class in the way he asked the questions.

One wonders whether his ego has gotten the best of him.

For the fall, let’s hope all the network anchors are excluded from the debates and we rely on PBS and print journalists to moderate the debates.

The media won’t do its job, so Jon Stewart is on the case.

After all the years of Bill Clinton’s bullshit, it’s amazing how the media drinks up everything he says without doing any real analysis or reporting. Their idea of analysis is to argue about how his statements affect the horse race, but they rarely do any real research to determine whether his allegations are true.

Another traditional publication sees the light and opens up its web site.

I always like Maria Shriver. Now I love her.

Maria cited the media circus surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith as one of the reason why she won’t be returning to NBC News.

Shriver, speaking Tuesday at a conference on women, said the media circus surrounding Smith’s accidental drug overdose death last February led to her decision.

“It was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I,” Shriver said. “I called NBC News and told them I’m not coming back.”

Good for her. Will the executives at NBC News and MSNBC learn anything from this? Don’t hold your breath.

I criticized MSNBC in the past for broadcasting incredibly lame, low-brow “documentaries” during MSNBC’ nightly “Doc-Block.” Instead of covering real issues of our time in these programs like the Iraq War or Social Security, MSNBC offers us an avalanche of prison documentaries. We get it already - prison sucks.

Maybe, just maybe, the brainiacs running this alleged news organization have decided that they can make room in their schedule for some of the great documentaries produced each year by all types of filmakers. Tonight they are airing “Super Size Me,” the award-winning documentary that tracks a man who eats only food from McDonald’s for one month. The results aren’t pretty. It’s informative and entertaining.

Is this the start of a trend? Let’s hope so. MSNBC should be commended.

MSNBC can’t help themselves. John Kerry botched a joke, and they can’t stop talking about it. The fact that we lost 103 soldiers in November hasn’t been mentioned yet this morning. They also haven’t covered the story of how the Iraqi government is stopping oir military’s operations in Sadr City.

The executives at MSNBC made a smart call when they decided to devote this week to coverage of the upcoming elections, but they destroy their credibility when they focus on tabloid-style stories like the Kerry quote.

While we’re on the subject of losing credibility, John McCain seems determined to destroy his reputation as a fair and reasonable politician. His attack on Kerry was shocking, given that Kerry explained that he mispoke. Any serious lawmaker not obsessed with scoring partisan points would take him at his word. McCain is becoming a political hack.

NBC is slashing staff and spending in a feeble attempt to revive the fortunes of the network and their cable operations. They’re blaming everything on “new media” and the need to adapt to the new environment.

Now we know why MSNBC has stopped covering the war in Iraq - it’s too expensive and it doesn’t get great ratings. How pathetic. Instead we’re subjected to nightly “doumentaries” featuring prisons and sensational murders that make local news broadcasts look like quality programming. Do you think they could manage to do a one hour documentary on serious subjects like the war, torture, social security or health care? Nah - that would require too much work and money.

Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman might be moved over to CNBC. Huh? Are they just giving up on MSNBC? How many hours of prison documentaries can the American public take? Here’s an idea - why not cover REAL NEWS?

Since Dan Abrams took over programming at MSNBC, I’ve noticed two changes - lame documentaries on the schedule after 10 PM and very little coverage of the Iraq War.

It’s not quite as bad at CNN, but coverage of the deteriorating situation in Iraq no longer seems like a priority for the mainstream media. Once the war in Lebanon started, it seems like they shifted their correspondents, and all their coverage, to that conflict, but then never brought them back. Perhaps it’s a cost issue. Perhaps they’re too obsessed with ratings. Either way, they are abdicating their responsibilities . . . again.

I wonder if Abrams watches “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. Matthews blasted the media tonight for ignoring the carnage in Iraq, and pointing out how this is playing into the GOP’s strategy to distract the public from the war.

Speaking of Matthews, Jim Webb was on tonight and gave the best interview I’ve ever seen him give. Matthews tried to get him to discuss George Allen’s current problems with the truth, but Webb scolded Matthews and made him focus on the issues. He gave a very clear explanation of what needed to be done in Iraq. I hope Virginians were able to see this performance.

MSNBC just interupted one of its programs for BREAKING NEWS!! What could be so important? They had live footage of John Mark Karr’s plane landing in Colorado.

Are they trying to become a caricature of themselves? How lame can cable news get?

I was hopeful that things would improve at MSNBC when Dan Abrams took over. He made a couple of good moves, like dumping yanking Rita Cosby’s show. But now we’re getting tabloid TV at its worst with the Jon Bonet coverage, and the nightly “Doc Block” documentaries are embarrassing. Instead of covering violent prison life over and over and over again, do you think a news organization like NBC could manage a documentary or two on the Middle East, stem-cell research or some other issue affecting our nation?

Meanwhile, MSNBC seems to have stopped covering the Iraq War. Maybe their reporters need a break following the around the clock coverage of the war in Lebanon, but some coverage of the fiasco in Iraq seems appropriate.

Pathetic. I can’t watch FOX. Maybe I’ll have to go back to CNN.

While it’s coming several years too late, Chris Matthews deserves credit for taking on the Bush administration and pointing out how the pre-war statements of Bush, Cheney and other senior officials were not consistent with the caveats being expressed by the CIA and our own government officials.

Tonight, after Dick Cheney’s ridiculous rant against war critics, Hardball replayed Dick Cheney’s statements over the past several years that were clearly untrue, AND which ignored caveats expressed AT THE TIME by our own intelligence officials. How can anyone argue that on issues like nuclear weapons and the alleged link to al Qaeda that these guys didn’t mislead the country?

I just wish that Matthews and other members of the press would have been this diligent and bold in 2002 and 2003.

Bob Woodward has been dragged into the Plamegate scandal after acknowledging to the Washington Post that a senior administration official had discussed Joe Wilson’s wife with him more than two years ago.

Woodward has been a critic of the investigation into the leak of Valerie Wilson’s name, yet he never disclsed his own involvement in the story. Woodward has apologized to the Post for withholding this information.

This stinks. Woodward should have kept his mouth shut and refrained from commenting on this case in light of these facts. He was already starting to come across as an apologist for the Bush administration, and this new disclosure further tarnishes his golden reputation.