Radio America Online News Bureau

The mainstream media are always titling to the left but in 2008, the press was more in the tank than ever for the Democrats – and specifically Barack Obama. That’s the thesis of the new book by longtime network television reporter Bernard Goldberg titled, “A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media”. Why does Goldberg believe coverage of the campaign crossed the line from bias to activism? What’s the difference and why is that difference important? Why did the press consider the campaign more about themselves than Obama? Why did reporters really loathe Sarah Palin? How was it obvious that negative stories for Obama got far less attention than ones that reflected poorly on John McCain? And what risk do we fun if this media activism is allowed to continue?

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How has President Obama performed over the past 30 days?  How tough of a hand was he dealt coming into the White House?  Does he own the economy now in political terms?  Should he be aggressive with his agenda given the huge Democratic majorities in Congress?  How have the Republicans performed?  Will they be seen as the loyal opposition or just obstructionists?  And is Obama making good use of his gift for speaking or is the new president overexposed?  We ask Larry Sabato, professor of political science at the University of Virginia.  He is also the author of the forthcoming book “The Year of Obama: How Barack Obama Won the White House”.

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Where are we in the effort to declare a winner in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race?  What are the main arguments being made by the Coleman campaign for admitting previously rejected ballots?  How many ballots are we talking about?  What is the rebuttal from the Franken campaign?  How is this court approaching the challenge from Coleman?  And when will this end?  We ask Kevin Duchshere, political reporter for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

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Late this week, Israeli President Shimon Peres selected Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition government.  What type of coalition will he try to form?  What will be his greatest national security priorities?  How will the likes of Iran and Hamas react to his victory?  We ask Dr. Walid Phares, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

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The Capitol Steps are back with two songs this week.  First, they welcome back Benjamin Netanyahu as the prime minister in Israel with “Hava Nodeala”.  Then they take Olympic champion Michael Phelps to task for his marijuana use in “What Kind of Fool Am I”.  Our guest is Steps impressionist Mark Eaton.

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We have Thursday’s top news…What is President Obama saying about the length of the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan?  What agreement did he reach with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his first foreign trip as president?  What jab did Vice President Joe Biden throw at the Bush administration today?  What is the senior senator from Illinois saying about the Roland Burris controversy?  What kind of budget agreement did California reach to fight off a $42 billion deficit?  And what happened on Wall Street today?  We have all the answers as we bring you the biggest stories for Thursday, February 19, 2009.

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On Thursday, Leon Panetta was sworn in as the new director of the CIA.  What should be his immediate priorities?  What are the biggest threats requiring the most attention?  Is the new intelligence structure a help or a hindrance in accomplishing our goals to protect this country?  What is the key to any good intelligence effort?  We ask all these questions to Herb Meyer, former special assistant to the director of the CIA.  He was also vice-chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council.

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Why are so many people in both parties demanding that Illinois Democratic Sen. Roland Burris resign?  Why has Burris changed his story so many times on how he won the senate appointment from Rod Blagojevich?  What is the U.S. Senate prepared to do about this issue?  And what does it all mean for the 2010 campaign?  We ask Susan Ferrechio, chief congressional correspondent for The Washington Examiner.

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Despite several Democratic lawmakers calling for a return of the Fairness Doctrine, which would mandate equal time for political debate on the airwaves and cripple talk radio, President Obama says he has no interest in reinstating that policy.  Is this the end of the fight?  What other tools could Congress, the FCC and Obama himself employ to accomplish the same goal?  How could Obama prove he is serious about protecting free speech on the air?  We ask Rich Noyes, director of research at the Media Research Center, a member of the newly created Free Speech Alliance.

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Is this Barack Obama’s economy now that he got his way on the stimulus debate?  Can Roy Blunt save the soon-to-be open Senate seat in Missouri?  Can Roland Burris survive the latest eruption in the Blagojevich scandal?  And what can we expect from Benjamin Netanyahu in his second stint as Israeli prime minister?  We ask John Gizzi, political editor at Human Events.

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