They have already put on their black mourning cloth over the imminent demise of Air America. The declaration of bankruptcy by that failing liberal radio network is expected to take place this Friday. As a result the Leftwingers are now in a state of mourning over their loss as you can see at the Democratic Underground and the Huffington Post. So break out your hankies and take a look at these expressions of grief (and unreality) from the leftwing mourners:

Randi is a little strong for my tastes, but I only hear her when I am running errands in the evening. And I wonder what will happen to Franken. He's gotta be the highest $$ talent that they have on the network. What are his ratings like??

Bob Schieffer, CBS's Chief Washington Correspondent and host of Face the Nation, used the “freeSpeech” segment on Wednesday's CBS Evening News to denounce the Bush administration's “secret prisons,” arguing in establishing them the U.S. has adopted “the methods of our enemies.” But our terrorist enemies don't put Americans into prison -- they murder Americans. Schieffer, who anchored the CBS Evening News until two weeks ago, told viewers of the broadcast now anchored by Katie Couric that he was “glad” the U.S. took the “suspected 9/11 ringleaders” out “of those secret CIA prisons. For me, it's a matter of national security -- ours. Democracies have no business running secret prisons. That's what our enemies do. If we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of people around the world, as the administration says we are, I won't feel very secure if the people around the world believe we are no different than our enemies.”

Schieffer also contended that “weapons didn't win the [Cold] War. We won when the people under Soviet domination could finally look across the Iron Curtain and see that open, democratic government made for a better life. Their governments were buying missiles when all they wanted were better schools and washing machines.” He concluded by arguing: “As Americans, we do believe our system offers a better way. But the only way to convince others of that is if we live by our values. Real security begins with remembering who we are. We gain nothing by adopting the methods of our enemies.” (Transcript follows)

Chris Matthews is as frustrated as an able-bodied seaman after six months without shore leave. While Matthews clearly senses this is the year for the Dems to snatch back the Speaker's gavel, hisfrustration is born of the fear that the Dems will squander the opportunity out of timidity - an unwillingness to attack President Bush on the war in Iraq.

Things boiled over during the 5 PM EDT edition of this evening's Hardball. With guests Howard Fineman of Newsweek and Chuck Todd of the Hotline as witnesses to the meltdown, Matthews first played a hard-hitting Moveon.org ad accusing Republicans of misleading the nation into Iraq and trying to "exploit 9/11" to win elections. Matthews complained that while the Republicans are willing to use the same kind of tactics against the Democrats, Dems "are afraid to run an ad like that."

On Newsbusters, we have been focusing on politics quite a bit of late. Of course, we have an election upcoming and a lot of serious forces of evil facing us effecting our foreign policy choices, so it is understandable. As the old Chinese curse goes; May you live in interesting times.

Anyway, that is all well and good, but we should not lose focus on the other, societal issues that we face on an ongoing basis where it concerns our Media and their inability to reflect the mores of the average citizen as well as the radical social agenda they constantly push.

Such is the case with the latest Chicago Sun-Times article by Dr. Laura Berman, the Paper's sex consultant. Titled "For a healthy marriage, put your spouse before your kids", Berman starts her piece off with the following endorsement:

"It's a radical concept to put your husband before your children, but one that I endorse."

On Wednesday’s "Early Show," co-host Rene Syler offered results from Tuesday’s primaries, but the labels were remarkably different. In Rhode Island, Syler classified Senator Chafee’s opponent as a "conservative,"  but in New York, Senator Clinton’s ultraliberal opponent was simply classified as "anti-war." Bob Schieffer offered commentary on the Rhode Island race, and called the Club for Growth "very conservative." Back in August, Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont was labeled as "anti-war" while the "Early Show" never referred to Lamont backers as "very liberal."  

The top story on the "Early Show" was the primary results, and the story was narrated by Rene Syler. She noted Stephen Laffey was a conservative:

On her first day of work NBC's new Today co-host Meredith Vieira mistakenly called House Majority Leader John Boehner the "House Speaker." The blooper came as Vieira, in a segment with Tim Russert, referred to an earlier report by David Gregory, as he, once again, over-hyped a remark from Boehner. Vieira mistakenly asked Tim Russert:

Vieira: "Meanwhile you have, as David Gregory pointed out, the House Speaker saying, criticizing the Democratic, the Democrats for criticizing the President by saying that they're really soft on terrorism, that their commitment to fighting the war is not really there. That's worked effectively for the Republicans in the past, that argument. Do you think that it still will work?"

Rich Muslims of the world need to unite and buy up various parts of the global media in order to force them to become more friendly to Islam. That's the message coming out of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference being held in Saudi Arabia.

As you might expect, Reuters has a reporter there who couldn't help but insert an anti-Fox News remark into the story:

Muslim tycoons should buy stakes in global media outlets to help change anti-Muslim attitudes around the world, ministers from Islamic countries heard at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Information ministers and officials meeting under the auspices of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Islamic body, said Islam faced vilification after the September 11 attacks, when 19 Arabs killed nearly 3,000 people in U.S. cities in 2001.

"American Morning" host Miles O'Brien prefaced a September 13 interview with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow by mentioning the President's 9/11 speech and wondering "if lawmakers on both sides of the aisle" were heeding Bush's call for unity. It soon became clear that when O'Brien said both sides, he meant only Republicans. The CNN anchor led with a quote critical of Democrats by Majority Leader John Boehner. Snow then attempted to reference some tough statements made by liberal Senator Carl Levin. O'Brien respond:

O'BRIEN: "No, no, I want to ask -- can I ask about Republicans first? Let's just talk about Republicans....I want to ask you about Republicans."

Great media bias busters think alike. TimesWatch.org's Clay Waters and I separately wrote articles on The New York Times's Melanie Warner and her latest foray into bashing the American food industry. In the September 13 Times, she takes on salt.

This is the same woman who found nothing to laugh at in funny beer ads and treated toy Hummers in McDonald's Happy Meals as a threat to the environment.

Check out Clay's piece at TimesWatch.org here and my BusinessandMedia.org story here.

It hasn't taken Katie Couric long to tailor the CBS Evening News to her liking.  The New York Observer reports the Perky One has replaced medical correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin with Dr Jonathan LaPook, Ms. Couric's gastroenterologist.

What makes that move even more interesting is that the good doctor's father-in-law is longtime liberal activist Norman Lear.  According to the Web site Newsmeat, the physician has contributed to the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, Wesley Clark, and Al Gore.

Don't be surprised if the CBS Evening News begins reporting on stories relating to matters such as the health dangers of global warming and the desirability of socialized medicine.

On Tuesday's Hardball, host Chris Matthews interviewed New York Congressman Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.  Mr. Reynolds spoke of the impact if Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives.

He mentioned that Nancy Pelosi would become speaker, Charlie Rangel would assume chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, and David Obey would take over the Appropriations Committee:

MATTHEWS:  Dave Obey.  He‘s all right.
REYNOLDS:  He‘s a fine individual.
MATTHEWS: He's no lefty.
REYNOLDS:  Well, he‘s a pretty good liberal for Wisconsin. 
MATTHEWS:  You think so?

With the news of Air America's expected demise comes the contest for which media outlet has been the most aggressively clueless in ignoring this fact in Al Franken interviews. This week's winner has to be Time magazine, whose Jeffrey Ressner swaps gibes with Franken in their "Ten Questions" interview during Bankruptcy Week with toughies like this:

TIME: Who would you rather be stranded with on a desert island: Ann Coulter or Katherine Harris?

Franken: Hmmmm. I'd say Katherine Harris, because there's more meat on the bone.

Before that came the question: "You've locked horns with most of the top conservative pundits: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly. Which one is your favorite feud?"

Nobody likes a nag.  But liberal Dems are in danger of becoming the party of scolds.  First there was Tom Frank and his "What's the Matter With Kansas," scolding red-state Americans for being too dumb to realize it's in their interest to vote Democrat. Then the New York Times berated investors for reacting too enthusiastically to good economic news, driving up stock prices.

Now Los Angeles Times columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan in Not So 'Hot,' Arnold lashes Latinos and other minorities for being insufficently outraged over comments that Arnold Schwarzenegger recently made. Arnold, speaking of CA Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, said that Latina women with black blood are "very hot."

Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress.

Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer.

The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America. Indeed, many of the country’s most successful and widely-syndicated progressive talk hosts — Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, for instance — aren’t even associated with Air America.

It's not often that a parody movie causes an international incident:

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's comic creation Borat Sagdiyev has caused so much outrage in Kazakhstan with his new movie, President George W. Bush will address the issue when he meets the Kazakh leader.

Bush is set to hold talks with Nursultan Nazarbayev over oil supply--and disgusted Kazakhs have demanded action over Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Roman Vassilenko says, "We have made it clear that we are unhappy with the character's representation. He does not represent the true people of Kazakhstan."

The British newspaper The Daily Mail has published a video clip of “Death of a President,” the controversial film about to be released dealing with the assassination of George W. Bush (hat tip to Drudge). As reported by DM:

The shocking footage, which you can preview exclusively here, is from a new Channel 4 movie to be broadcast on More4 in October, focusing on the fictional slaying of the world's most powerful man.

Watch a clip from the film everyone's talking about

Post comments about whatever you like here.

Keith Olbermann used the solemn occasion of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to launch a no-holds-barred political attack on President Bush, as you can see in this September 11 Countdown video. Olbermann also added to the poor taste of his bad timing with this quote from an episode of the Twilight Zone called The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street:

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts... attitudes... prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone.

Was Maureen Dowd kidding about having called Tim Russert to ask if VP Cheney washed his hands after his Meet the Press appearance this Sunday? By all indications she was not, making one fear the Times columnist is slipping ever deeper into Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Dowd writes in her pay-to-read column of today, Vice Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work, "I called Tim Russert to ask if Dick Cheney had washed his hands after their interview on Sunday. Any sort of scrubbing, I wondered? Antiseptic wipe, Purell, quick shower on the way out?"

Russert reportedly replied in the negative.

Dowd was prompted to ask after reading a recent Times' health section article about a new study on the “Macbeth effect," which concluded that people who washed their hands after contemplating an unethical act were less troubled by their thoughts than those who didn’t.

This one has to go in the category of “If you live long enough...”

Civil rights activist Dick Gregory was interviewed last week on XM radio (hat tip to Hot Air), and according to Redding News Review, he had some rather extraordinary things to say about a British film dealing with the assassination of President George W. Bush (video clip preview of the film now available here):

WASHINGTON, Sept. 08, 2006, 11:20 p.m. - Controversial comedian and activist Dick Gregory today said he would not be surprised if a UK film's fictional assassination of President Bush comes true and he does not "finish his term out."

The article despicably continued:

The student newspaper of the University of Virginia, the Cavalier Daily, has gotten national attention for two cartoons lampooning Catholic beliefs.

Reports the Cavalier Daily on itself:

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and individuals from across the country have sent nearly 2,000 letters to The Cavalier Daily and to the University administration in response to the publication of two controversial comics Aug. 23 and Aug. 24.

Both comics were drawn by third-year College student Grant Woolard. The first comic was titled "Christ on a Cartesian Plane," and depicts the Crucifixion with a parabolic graph superimposed on the figure of Christ. The second comic is titled "A Nativity Ob-scene" and features dialogue between the Virgin Mary and Joseph about an "immaculately transmitted" rash....

Some ultra-PC alarmists inside the BBC are fretting about a video made to spoof assistant editor Simon Torkington's new gig at Al-Jazeera. The video features his colleagues dressed up in Middle Eastern garb, singing a parody song.

A company statement called the video "illjudged, and we will be speaking with those involved." This means that censorship now extends to private parties for the self-flagellating BBC. In forty years, hopefully Al-BBC executives will be just as abhorrent of anti-European jokes.

Reports the Evening Standard.

Members of the BBC London news team today face a grilling from senior bosses after they filmed a spoof video making light of the conflict in the Middle East.

The film, a skit on Peter Kay's (Is This The Way To) Amarillo? was made to mark the departure of assistant editor Simon Torkington who is going to the news channel Al-Jazeera International in Qatar with his wife, former ITV news anchor Shiulie Ghosh.

The man nobody at the Washington Post can really classify, the reporter/columnist Dana Milbank, has his page 2 "Washington Sketch" column Wednesday on the hot Democratic anger topic: "The arrival of Treason Season, heralded by the charged address President Bush gave on Monday's 9/11 anniversary, is right on schedule."

The liberal Democrat-media complex was abuzz yesterday about the Republicans charging the Democrats with being solicitous of terrorists. This, to anyone who's read the