How clumsy is this lede from the Associated Press:

“Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Wednesday he will ask Americans earning more than $200,000 a year to pay the taxes they paid under President Clinton and pledged to retain the Bush tax cuts for the middle class and even add to them.”

The obvious way to write this “John Kerry said he will raise taxes on Americans earning more than….but pledged to retain the Bush tax cuts for the middle class.” So why would the AP writers and editors bend themselves into pretzels to keep from stating the obvious? They certainly don’t show this kind of nuance when it comes to, say, disputes between the CIA and the White House on intelligence issues.

If the coverage of the presidential race continues at its current, egregious pace, this may be the year when the media finally end the pretense that they are not dominated by liberal interests.