You all know how awful Clear Channel is with their push of Rush, Bush and the Iraqi war. It has gobbled up populist stations and muzzled free speech. Now, it seems they spread their hate to animals, too. The following information is not for the faint of heart, so take care before you read on. These events happened at Clear Channel stations.

A Denver disc jockey (KPBI-FM) was recently convicted of animal cruelty for orchestrating a stunt in which a chicken was dropped from a third-story balcony to see if it could fly. In Wheeling, a steer’s execution was recorded and aired for 129 stations during a live broadcast. Another similar event involving a Clear Channel DJ (KEGL-FM) in Dallas involved feeding a rabbit to a snake – on the air. (This station was forced to record a public apology on the air and publicize animal welfare information on their web site.)

In addition, Clear Channel’s Tampa station DJ was just charged with felonious animal cruelty for castrating and then butchering an unanesthetized pig in the parking lot of the station. Many consider this a ratings stunt. The animal was screaming in pain.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Media watch alert: a curious double distortion in the media mirror, as the situation in Iraq unravels before our eyes. Iraq gets less media play for two reasons -- one an old media fault, and the other political.

As the story gets worse, it also becomes more familiar. We've heard it before, quite a few times, and consequently it doesn't get as much play. "Seven Marines Killed" or "Scores Are Dead After Violence Spreads in Iraq" would have been HUGE stories a year ago. Now they're just another bad day in Iraq, nothin' new here, no news. Back to the hurricane (which is also becoming unpleasantly old news).

Question: Which figure from American history does John Kerry most resemble, Abraham Lincoln or John F. Kennedy?

Correct Answer: Greg Louganis.

I sincerely hope that the above joke does not foreshadow the outcome of this presidential contest. But I fear that it may. John Kerry has apparently given up. He is not defending himself against the vicious serial attacks of the Republicans. He is running nothing that could honestly be labeled a presidential campaign, let alone one intended to defeat President Bush. Does he actually think that "I'm Not Bush" will be enough to put him in the White House, that the highest office in the land will simply be bestowed upon him on that basis? You do not run a weak and passive, indeed invisible campaign if you truly want to be president. If John Kerry is indeed competing, and not playing us all for fools by "taking a dive", he had best start fighting very hard, and very soon.

Democratic Presidential nominee John F. Kerry seems to be evading any confrontation with the media. According to journalists who have been tracking Kerry along the campaign trail, the senator has not held a formal press conference since August 9, some two weeks before the last time President Bush met with the press.

When Israel ended a six-month lull in violence by striking a suspected Hamas training camp in Gaza and killing 14 with a U.S.-built Apache helicopter in response to the September 2 suicide bombings, Kerry did not take one question. Nor did he speak with the press corps when Israeli occupation forces destroyed two large apartment buildings south of Gaza in Khan Younis, leaving nearly 100 Palestinians homeless. But perhaps Kerry's most appalling act of silence came on September 7 when the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq reached 1,000 and Kerry declined to chat with the media.

The Washington Post quoted the New York Times' reporter Jodi Wilgoren, who is following Kerry along his campaign, as saying of Kerry's elusiveness: 'I think it's ridiculous. There are a lot of things happening in the