After a mini-rant about how the "liberal media" has lost all sense of objectivity this election cycle, Lou Dobbs invites media "critic" Howard Kurtz on to "set him straight." As anyone who has watched/read Kurtz over the years knows, he couldn't agree more.

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DOBBS: It is, I think, a fairly safe assertion to put forward that the national media is liberal, it's biased and this year, at least to me, and as an advocacy journal, I can say these sorts of things here on CNN, I think they're missing a lot under the veil of objectivity and the impulses of something less than objective, at least in my view.

Let me turn to you first, Howard, just as a matter of straightforward fact, I believe, the fact of my opinion, anyway, I believe that the national media has revealed a lack of objectivity unprecedented in campaign coverage.

KURTZ: If you look at the last year and a half, Lou, I've never seen so much coverage and so much positive coverage of a presidential candidate as Barack Obama has gotten up through the overseas trip where some of the coverage was just gushing. In recent weeks, I think there's been a little more skepticism in the coverage, not because of any ethical re-assessment but because the race has tightened which makes poll-driven journalists wonder well what's he doing wrong. Why isn't he leading this race in a democratic year by ten points?

You're right, Howard: I can't even begin to imagine how many voters Obama picked up while having to defend himself from accusations by the media of being a secret Muslim who hates America and won't say the pledge of allegiance. Is this guy freaking serious?

Glenn has a great post up about the "liberal media," which he sums up thusly, borrowing a line from Duncan:

"Your liberal media: no liberals allowed."

Recommended reading on Kurtz at "The Daily Howler".

KURTZ JUMPS INTO THE TANK: Howard Kurtz is deep in the tank as he begins today's report. You'll rarely see a reporter recite a political party's line quite the way Kurtz recites the GOP line as he opens:

From the moment Sarah Palin stepped onto the national stage, she was mauled, minimized and manhandled by an openly skeptical media establishment.
That lasted six days. By Thursday morning, after a speech in which she chided the journalistic elite, the previously obscure governor of Alaska was being hailed by many of the same media gurus.

The media's tattered reputation has not fared as well, not after the frenzy over Palin's mothering skills, her baby and her pregnant teenage daughter.

Truly, that's quite a statement-and it's the straight Republican line. Palin was "mauled and manhandled by an openly skeptical media establishment," Kurtz says. But go ahead! Just try to find Kurtz's support for that remarkable statement...read on