It’s funny that for all their flag waving and chest thumping the editors of Fox News spent more time covering Anna Nicole Smith recently than they did covering the Iraq war.

According to PEJ’s first quarter News Coverage Index, “MSNBC and CNN were much more consumed with the war in Iraq than was Fox.”

In daytime, FNC devoted 6 percent of its time to Iraq, and 17 percent of its time to Anna Nicole. For CNN, the mix was 20 percent Iraq, 5 percent Anna; for MSNBC, the mix was 18 percent Iraq, 10 percent Anna – Mediabistro.com

Read the entire report at the Project for Excellence in Journalism website and try not to be shocked that Fox “News” is anything but.

And what’s up with only spending 6% of their time covering Iraq? Surely there’s more than enough “good news” which isn’t being reported by the liberal Anna Nicole Smith hating media?

Is a rambling non-sensical attempt to link “white rap fans” who apparently have fewer scruples than the KKK with “lefty bloggers” really the “Best of the Blogs From Wisconsin”?

I mean, generalizations about “know-it-all suburban lefties who like to throw stones from their cushy armchairs and manicured lawns in Shorewood, Brookfield and River Hills or wherever”, can’t the Journal Sentinel find a something a little more intelligent to hoist up on it’s editorial page as an example of the “best” of Wisconsin weblogs?

Quick observation: who knew that conservatives sat around all day watching “The View” on ABC?

I had no idea a daytime show geared towards women would draw so much interest from conservative white males across the “blogosphere”.

Yes you read that right, and no my weblog hasn’t been hijacked by conservative bloggers!

Of course I’ve got quite a few friends who are Republicans and conservatives, and I respect the fact that they stand for their beliefs, even though I may disagree with some of those beliefs. But over the years, they’ve been having trouble identifying with their party and Republican candidates who call themselves “conservative”. The 2006 election was a bit of a reflection of the dissatisfaction by some of those “real” conservatives who feel their party has been hijacked by “social conservatives” over the past 10 years.

From what I’ve been hearing from some of those traditional conservatives, they’re incredibly disappointed with the quality of the 2008 Republican candidates thus far. National polls reflect this as well through the high polling numbers that unannounced “real conservative” Republicans like Fred Thompson get.

However, it appears as though a more qualified “true conservative” candidate from the Republican party is now getting a serious look after some of his common sense ideas have gotten some press in recent Republican debates.

Rep. Ron Paul is a Republican from Texas, and by all accounts, a true conservative. He also seems to be someone that “gets it” about the war in Iraq, the root causes of the 9/11 attack, Internet privacy, and individual rights.

In fact, if some of his fiscal and social policies weren’t so conservative, he’d be an attractive candidate to a lot of moderates and Independents as well in the mold of Sen. John McCain circa 1999. Remember that Independents can vote in the New Hampshire primary, which could bode well for Rep. Paul.

If you have a few minutes, there’s a great interview (below) with him at a National Press club event this week where he “presented” Rudy Giuliani with a reading list:

The Ron Paul presidential campaign issued the following reading list for Rudy Giuliani to educate himself on foreign policy.

“I hope Rudy Giuliani reads these books from top foreign policy experts,” said campaign chairman Kent Snyder. “We have also included some Cliffs Notes in case Mr. Giuliani is too busy giving $100,000 speeches on national security.”

This is one of the things I really respect about Rep. Paul. While Rudy may have gotten big applause lines in the recent Republican debate for throwing out the “9/11 MADE ME A LEADER AND WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CAUSES!!!” line, it’s really not rooted in any kind of reality. And quite frankly, the last thing we need for the next 5 years is a President who prefers misleading tough-guy sound bytes to expert analysis and a reasoned approach to the problems America faces abroad.

On to the video so you can judge for yourself:

While I have no plans on switching teams, it’s encouraging to see competent candidates on the Republican side getting more coverage. At the end of the day it’s a good thing to raise the level of discourse between the parties about American’s problems, and I’m happy to see Rep. Ron Paul doing his part regarding that effort.

Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold on the proposed “compromise” between President Bush and the Democratic leadership for the Iraq supplemental:

I cannot support a bill that contains nothing more than toothless benchmarks and that allows the President to continue what may be the greatest foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history. There has been a lot of tough talk from members of Congress about wanting to end this war, but it looks like the desire for political comfort won out over real action. Congress should have stood strong, acknowledged the will of the American people, and insisted on a bill requiring a real change of course in Iraq.”

I have to agree with Sen. Feingold here. President Bush gets everything he wants out of this bill – namely a blank check for funding the next year of the war – and Democrats get worthless “benchmark” language.

I understand that we don’t want to get the “Don’t support the troops” label, but we should be less concerned about labels and more concerned about listening to what the overwhelming majority of the American people want: and end to this war.

Jessica McBride wouldn’t do her old station the “honor” of keeping her weblog there so it’s been moved to Blogger. And without any restraints on her at all, expect the paranoid conspiracy theories from the paper mache matron of Wisconsin conservatives to come faster and harder than ever.

Interesting in her rant that points the fingers at everyone except herself that she fails to mention she was being shown the door at WTMJ before we liberal bloggers single handedly got her fired by using our Media Matters Super Soros Power Rings! to do so.

Interesting and not at all surprising.

Not that any of the media outlets are paying much attention these days, but another 7 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq yesterday, bringing the total killed just this month to 71 and at least 3,422 since the war began.

Anyone remember this?

President Bush sought to rally Republican lawmakers around his Iraq plan Thursday, saying Iraqis are ready to “take the training wheels off” by assuming some political power.

He warned that violence is likely to worsen as that transfer approaches, and after it passes.

That was written three years ago today.

It looks like poor ratings, erratic behavior, and making fun of a 4 year olds tragic death were finally enough to get Jessica McBride the boot off talk AM radio.

More details here.

All I can really add is good riddance. She was a partisan hack who’s never had an original thought that didn’t originate from a GOP press release and frankly she didn’t deserve the basement time slot they gave her. Further, she certainly doesn’t deserve to be teaching a an accredited research institution like UWM.

It might sound harsh, and we have mutual friends, but her brand of overly partisan, illogical, unethical, attack first, ask questions later (if at all) hackery jokingly masked as “journalism” is something we need less of in public discourse.

Hopefully her replacement on the radio brings more substance to the public debate, but knowing the employer, I’m not holding my breath.