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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2008

News Shows Have Different Visions Of Reality
On MSNBC, Sen. Barack Obama's surge in the polls was so strong he was competitive in McCain's home state, Arizona. The everyman hero of McCain's campaign, "Joe the Plumber," failed to make an expected appearance at a morning rally in Defiance, Ohio, and the senator's efforts to highlight Obama's association with a professor tied to the PLO were amounting to nothing.

Wait a minute ... not so fast. Click.

Things were looking up for McCain, the Fox News Channel hosts Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren told their viewers at roughly the same time Thursday. He got a boost at an afternoon rally in Sandusky, Ohio, from none other than Joe the Plumber, who announced his intention to vote for "a real American, John McCain"; he was gaining new ground in ever-tightening polls, despite the overwhelming bias against him in the mainstream news media; and Obama's association with a professor sympathetic to the PLO was now at "the center of the election."

On any given night, there are two distinctly, even extremely, different views of the presidential campaign offered on two of the three big cable news networks, Fox News Channel and MSNBC.

Obama Camp: He Had No Knowledge Of Aunt's Status

WASHINGTON - Responding to a report that a Kenyan relative of Sen. Barack Obama was living in the United States illegally, his campaign on Saturday said that he had no knowledge of her immigration status and that "any and all appropriate laws" should be followed.

The woman, Zeituni Onyango, referred to as "Auntie Zeituni" in a passage in Obama's memoir, applied for political asylum in the United States in 2004, but a federal immigration judge rejected her request and instructed her to leave the country, said a government official with knowledge of the case who asked not to be identified because of its sensitive nature. Onyango's legal status was first reported by The Associated Press on Friday.

Onyango is the half-sister of Obama's father and is part of an extensive network of paternal relatives with whom Obama has had limited contact, his aides said. Obama, who was largely raised by his maternal grandparents in a modest apartment in Honolulu, first met Onyango when he traveled to Africa as an adult.

President Bush Keeping A Low Profile This Week

WASHINGTON - It's the week of Election Day. Do you know where your president is?

Probably not, and that is by design. With Sen. John McCain lagging behind in the polls and many other Republicans fighting for their political lives, the nation's top Republican - President Bush - is intentionally lying low, and is likely to do so until after Americans cast their ballots to pick his successor.

Bush knows what it feels like to be down in the polls, and he is keeping a careful eye on the campaign.

Neil Armstrong To Donate Personal Papers To Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Former astronaut Neil Armstrong has agreed to donate personal papers dating from the start of his flight career to his alma mater, Purdue University.

Also, James R. Hansen, author of the 2005 book "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," is donating 55 hours of one-on-one recorded interviews with Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon.

Activists Organize Hunger Strike For Political Prisoners

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - A group of Saudi activists is planning the country's first public hunger strike to draw attention to the detention without charge of a dozen political reformists. The participants, who include lawyers, university students and relatives of the detained, could face arrest in the authoritarian kingdom.

The 48-hour strike is planned in several Saudi cities on Thursday and Friday. Organizers said they are demanding the government grant the prisoners public trials or set them free.

"To the government, we want to say that you can't put prisoners of conscience in jail without facing consequences," said Walid Abu-Alkhair, a lawyer in Jiddah.

A wire report

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