And the cheerleading begins. Absent in any coverage of Sheehan is her track-record, now well-established, of radical anti-American vitriol — things like calling the jihadist terrorists in Iraq “freedom fighters” and blaming her son’s death on a neocon / Jewish conspiracy to benefit Israel. So far, no mainstream media organization has reported on the protests outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where antiwar extremists have carried signs that say “Maimed for a lie.”

Instead, the AP welcomes Sheehan back onto the national stage with a love letter from Angela Brown that, as Powerline noted, contains significant distortions of fact. In this article, Brown implies that Sheehan turned against the war only when “pre-war intelligence” proved “faulty”. Powerline points out that Sheehan was against the war all along. Also, Brown has a track record — a few weeks ago she wrote that Casey Sheehan signed up for the military in 2000, “never imagining he would see combat.” The story fails to note that Casey Sheehan re-enlisted in August 2003. In addition, even though he was a mechanic and not required to fight, Sheehan bravely volunteered for the rescue mission on which he was killed. (via Michelle Malkin)

Eric Pfeiffer in Crawford has more on the protesters’ manipulation of the media, and how the media — which thrive by exploiting emotion and conflict — are delighted to have their star performer back in the spotlight.