Ann Coulter astutely observed in her latest article that "our two front-runners happen to be the media's picks."

No doubt about that: John McCain was The New York Times' favorite Republican presidential hopeful and Barack Obama was its favorite Democrat.

BUT, once McCain became the presumptive Republican nominee, The Times flip-flopped like John Kerry and savaged McCain.

Reality is that the media is heavily invested in the Black-Camelot-is-coming story, so much so that it is not only sparing Barack scrutiny but also scurrilously covering McCain.

What The Times did was so bad journalistically that its "independent" Public Editor publicly admitted that the above the fold, front page article implying that McCain not only committed adultery in 2000 but did the bidding of a female lobbyist instead of what he thought was right should not have been published.

Meanwhile, much of the media is railing (with the Obama campaign) against the release of a photo (for which Barack obviously posed) of Barack in African garb taken during his trip to his late father's homeland (Kenya) a couple of years ago.

What's the problem?

Barack was fully dressed, and he posed for the photo. Publicizing such photos of presidential hopefuls is to be expected. Ask Mike (Tank Man)Dukakis and John (The Duck Hunter)Kerry.

Apparently the Obama campaign and its media allies are playing the race card, by arguing that the release of the photo to The Drudge Report is somehow racist.

Nonsense, as Clinton campaign manager Maggie William (who is blacker and older than Barack) rightly explained in a press release receiving relatively little attention.

This year, the problem is not white backlash but black frontlash: 90% of black Democrats are supporting Barack instead of Hillary and polling indicates that Barack would have an even higher percentage against McCain.

The media enthusiastically reported on problematic relatives of Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Carter, but it is loathe to focus public attention on Barack's family and when touch the subject, it does so in a way designed to induce sympathy instead of to educate.

Take, for example, the response in USA Weekend to this question by Hilary Jacobs of East Lansing, Michigan: "I have never seen photos of Barack Obama's parents, nor do we know much about them. Also, does he have any sibllings?"

(In 1960, as Kennedy Camelot loomed, there was plenty of public information about the Kennedy family. albeit nothing about JFK's annulled first marriage and no proof that he had lied when he denied having Addison's disease.)

The USA Weekend response: "Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, died in 1995 of ovarian cancer. His father, Barack Obama Sr., died in a car crash in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1982. The couple met as students at the University of Hawaii and were married briefly in the early 1960's. His mother and father both had other kids; a younger sister on his mother's side and an older sister on his father's side have campaigned for him."

Nothing about Barack Sr. having been married when he "married" Barack's mother.

Nothing about Barack's anti-European Kenyan brother on his father's side, Abongo 'Roy' Obama, a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must "liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture" and urged his younger brother to embrace his African heritage.

That photo that the Obama campaign is now public suggests that younger brother Barack embraced his African heritage while in Africa, but is concerned about American voters seeing the evidence.

And, of course, not a peep about Barack's ties to Kenyan radical presidential hopeful Raila Odinga, who identified himself as Barack's cousin on his father's side and for whom Barack campaigned in Kenya after he visited Barack in the United States.

Pamela Geller, Israel National News.com, January 9, 2008: "The recent revelations of [Barack] Obama's ties to Raila Odinga in Kenya are disconcerting... because Odinga is behind the terrible violence in his country. It was he who instigated bloody riots and killing after he lost the election. Obama's bias for his fellow Luo was so blatant that a Kenyan government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila's 'stooge.' And while there are few angels in Kenya, Odinga is the source of great unrest and turmoil; and the [Memorandum of Understanding] he signed with the Muslim Council to institute sharia [Islamic law] is a foreshadowing of a dark fate for Kenya."

If enough American voters don't see the light, America's (and Israel's) fate will be dark too.