The stories that get no coverage ... and why...

Have you heard much chatter about that $300,000 outfit that Cindy McCain wore to the RNC? Me neither. If a Democratic candidate gets a $400 haircut, the saturation coverage practically kills his candidacy, but a multi-millionaire dollar heiress, wife to the Republican candidate for president, wears a outfit whose value cost more than your average American House and there's hardly a whisper of coverage, much less outrage.

Have you heard about Sarah Palin's effort to ban books in Wasilla, Alaska? And when that tactic failed, she attempted to fire the librarian. Only a concerted 'community effort' to push back against the barracuda of the fringe right helped save the librarian's job. Not much news about that, is there? But you probably have heard about the multi-million airplane she attempted to sell on e-Bay. Have you heard yet that the attempt failed, and Sarah was forced to pull the airplane off e-Bay?

Have you heard about the area around Wassila, Alaska being the Meth Capital of the world? Have you heard of Palin's attempt to fire a sheriff for suggesting that the bars close at 2 am rather than 4 am--the later hour no doubt helping to attract all those meth heads unable to sleep?

Did you know that Sarah Palin is in favor of teaching 'creationism' and that she doesn't believe--counter massive scientific evidence--that global warming is caused by human activity? Have you heard this wonderful quote yet:

Environmentalists have nicknamed Palin the "killa from Wasilla," a reference to the small town where she formerly was mayor.

"Her philosophy from our perspective is cut, kill, dig and drill," said John Toppenberg, director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, maintaining she is "in the Stone Age of wildlife management and is very opposed to utilizing accepted science."

Did you know that Cindy McCain was business partners with Keating around the time John McCain was meeting with regulators on Keating's behalf? Probably not: The Washington Post hasn't told readers that fact during this campaign; The New York Times has made only brief mention of it. ABC, CBS, NBC -- nothing.

Or how about the fact that John and Cindy McCain would save nearly $400,000 a year under John McCain's tax plan -- a tax plan that includes the extension of Bush tax cuts McCain once bashed as unfairly skewed towards the wealthy? Have you seen any media mention to that lately? It wasn't long ago that news organizations thought John Edwards' wealth was important to keep in mind in assessing his policy proposals -- but that apparently doesn't apply to John McCain.

Did you know that over 800 protestors were arrested at the RNC convention and, of those, at least 19 were journalists merely covering the protests? Included in the round up were two reporters from The Associated Press, Amy Goodman, the nationally recognized, award winning journalist for Democracy Now!, and two producers from her show?

But you probably did know that Sarah Palin has been unjustly bashed by the press for having a daughter with a child out of wedlock. Did you know that the only media outlet even bothering with that story was the infamous National Enquirer. Did you know that it wasn't even a national news story until the McCain campaign decided to make it so, by announcing it; and then in the same day resentfully accusing the press of using the story to bash their candidate.

Did you know that Sarah Palin was lying when she claimed she had told Congress she did not want funding for the "bridge to nowhere"? Or that Congress had said a year before Palin became governor that Alaska need not spend the federal funds on the bridge? And Palin had initially supported the bridge, not opposed it. And once she became governor, Palin kept the money. Did you know that Palin's false claims Wednesday night were not new? She had actually said the same thing in previous campaign appearances since McCain picked her -- and several media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times had debunked the boast. But when Palin told the lie during her convention speech -- after days of McCain complaints that the media had been too hard on Palin -- those newspapers ignored the lie.

Did you know that conservatives have been using that same nonsense about biased press coverage since Richard Nixon and that it's a concerted effort to 'work the refs' (the press) and that it does, in fact, work?

Even simple balance issues like the amount of time devoted to either convention tell the tale. The media has actualy devoted more air time to the Republican National Convention than the Democratic National Convention.

As Jamie Foser notes over at Media Matters:

She [Sarah Palin] falsely attacked Barack Obama's legislative record -- and media uncritically quoted the false claims. She lied about Obama's tax plans -- she said he "wants to raise" them, even though John McCain's own economic adviser has admitted that is false -- and, again, the media repeated her claim without debunking it.

Instead, much of the media gushed over her speech. If you watched MSNBC yesterday, you would have seen reporter after reporter talk about the McCain complaints that the media were too hard on Palin. And you would have seen reporter after reporter lavish praise on Palin's speech. But you wouldn't have seen them say much about the actual content of Palin's speech -- certainly not about whether she told the truth in it. At one point, Andrea Mitchell declared that "what came through" in Palin's address was "the authenticity."

Yes, she's an authentic liar, gold plated, I'd say, as is most of what makes up the McCain campaign.

Here's Foser again:

The next two months will constitute a test for reporters: If they fall for the idea that they're treating unfairly a candidate who has long referred to them as his "base," what won't they fall for? If they won't stand up to these attacks, what will they stand up to?

Now, to leave on a more positive note, here's Rachel Maddow laying into the lies of the RNC: