Dish Network Now Has An Obama Channel

Want to talk about media bias?

Barack Obama now has his own channel on Dish Network running his ads as well as other biological propaganda.

Think I'm kidding? 

It's called "Barack Obama's Plan For America," and is Dish channel 73.

Apparently, this has caught many Dish subscribers -- other than me, that is!!! -- by surprise as just reported by Politico's Ben Smith:

Three readers from different parts of the country email that Channel 073-00 on the Dish Network is now labeled OBAMA. ("What is up with Sen. Obama having his own channel?" asks a St. Louis reader.) The channel plays his two-minute ad laying out his economic plan on a loop, over and over. [...]

The channel's appearance has provoked scorn and alarm on conservative blogs, though, and some discussion on a forum for Satellite TV aficionados, where one user writes that a Dish Network executive emailed to reassure the user that  it "is paid advertising by the Obama campaign and is not an endorsement of Senator Obama by DISH Network" and will broadcast through November 4.

A spokeswoman for EchoStar, the Dish Network's parent company, didn't respond immediately to phone and email inquiries abotut the channel.

What the heck is going on here?