Still wondering if there really is a liberal media bias? Not convinced yet? Well, a recently released story by Ron Fournier of the Associated Press may change your mind.

In an article entitled “Democrats Eye November Landslide,” Fournier comes across more as a professional Democratic pollster than a supposedly impartial journalist. As amazing as it might seem, the article began: “Republicans are three steps from a November shellacking each a grim possibility if habitually divided Democrats get their acts together.”

Unfortunately, the cheerleading was just beginning:

“First step: Voters must focus on the national landscape on Nov. 7 rather than local issues and personalities that usually dominate midterm elections.

“That would sting Republicans, who trail badly in national polls.”

Convinced yet? Well, here are paragraphs four and five:

Since it was Memorial Day, the day on which America honors its war dead, it was natural that The Washington Post saw this as the perfect day for...a big profile of a hard-left "anti-war" activist, Stacy Bannerman of Military Families Speak Out. Reporter David Montgomery chronicled her marriage to a National Guard soldier, "the warrior and the antiwarrior," and she won. The husband, back from Iraq, asked: "Soldiers are dying for what reason again?"

The annual Memorial Day concert event on the mall (nationally televised by PBS) topped the left corner of the Style section, but much of the front Style page was devoted to Bannerman’s story, with a huge Post photographer's shot of Bannerman marching for "peace" in jeans and a T-shirt, complete with the www.mfso.org web address. The headline was: "Choose Your Battle: She's a Pacifist. He's A Warrior. But Even In the Shadow of Iraq, Their Love Soldiers On."

Charlie Gibson will take over the anchor duties tonight (Monday) for ABC's World News Tonight. The MRC's Web site features a just-compiled "Profiles in Bias" collection of liberal comments and reporting from Gibson. The page lists about 50 quotes, going back to 1990, with ten accompanied by audio/video clips.

On Good Morning America, which he has co-hosted for most of the past two decades, and as a frequent fill-in for Peter Jennings on World News Tonight, Gibson displayed little willingness to stray from the media elite's liberal template. The quotes collected from the MRC's archive exemplify Gibson's conventional liberal approach to the issues of the day: favoring gun control and campaign finance reform, portraying tax cuts as costly, unwise and unfair, and once even boasting about a sign in his house proclaiming: "War is not good for children and other living things."

NewsBusters reader Mr. Snuggles has pointed out something conspicuously absent from Google’s various pages today – any reference to Memorial Day.

I’m sure most Googlers are extremely aware of how Google will dress up its logo at its web search or news pages in honor of holidays or special occasions. Google has been known to do this on Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc. In fact, here is a display of all the Google holiday logos so far this year, and since 1999. You’ll even find that Google celebrated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday just a week ago. For those scratching their heads, he created Sherlock Holmes.

Yet, if you go to Google’s home page here, or its news page here, you will see nothing commemorating today’s national holiday. By contrast, Google did honor the Persian New Year on March 21, as well as Louis Braille’s birthday on January 4.

Furthermore, if you go back through the Google archives, you'll find that, although it has over the years commemorated Shichi-go-san being celebrated in Japan, Bastille Day in France, and Korean Liberation Day, it appears that Google has never dressed up its logo for Memorial Day.

Why might that be?

Most of you have likely heard this classic version of “America The Beautiful” performed by Ray Charles. Many in the music industry perceive it to be the finest recorded version of this anthem, as well as one of the most memorable from Mr. Charles. It comes to us courtesy of John Condra at GOP Video News.

As you watch this marvelous video montage, I’m sure it will remind you of the true meaning of this holiday. I hope you all have a marvelous day with your families.

God Bless America!

Watch Video

What follows are the actual lyrics to Charles’s version. For other patriotic Memorial Day videos posted this weekend, please go here and here.

The National Organization for Women doesn't seem to be the powerhouse it used to be. Paul Farhi reports in Monday's Washington Post that the old group is sending a letter (along with other feminist groups) protest the demotion of Elizabeth Vargas as anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." Question: does it take a week to get a letter together?

Feminists protesting the demotion as pregnancy discrimination -- and not the ABC newscast's drop in the ratings picture -- is entirely predictable. But why so slow? It's also entirely predictable that the Post reporter only called the feminists "women's groups" as he rolled out their complaints:

"It seems unlikely to me, having survived and thrived through her first pregnancy, that she would logically give up the top job in TV a few months out, anticipating she couldn't handle it," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. "It just doesn't strike me as a logical explanation. I don't think there are too many men who would be happy to be removed from the anchor chair."

On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume, a veteran of ABC News, chided his former employer: “ABC News came out with this story, worded the way it was. 'Included in the investigation,' ‘in the mix of the investigation,' has an unmistakable implication, and that is the guy's under investigation. We have now had an absolutely unequivocal denial of that, not only from the Justice Department at one level, but when this business about what well, what about being 'in the mix' came along, Paul McNulty, the U.S. Attorney, came out and denied that as well. This looks like a bad story. They led their newscast with it. The implication was unmistakable. They ought to back off this story, and the sooner the better."

CNN's Howard Kurtz, on Sunday morning's Reliable Sources, raised the accuracy of the story with Linda Douglass who covered Capitol Hill for ABC News until the end of 2005: "Did ABC overplay that story?" Douglass was reluctant to lambast her ex-colleagues, but her disagreement with their news judgment was clear: "Well, I think leading with it was a controversial decision, is what I would say. And I think that saying he was part of the investigation, if in fact his name just came up, was, was a phrase you might want to revisit." (Transcripts, and a link to video of the Ross story, follow)