1. MSNBC Anchor Casts Ballot for Liberal Democrat
The anchor of MSNBC’s election night coverage, Chris Matthews, told Phil Donahue on Monday night that he had already voted for the liberal Democratic candidate for Governor in Maryland, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, though he expects her to lose.

2. Streisand: Wellstone Crash “No Accident”
Barbra Streisand, the New York Post’s “Page Six” column asserted on Monday, “is privately saying that Senator Paul Wellstone's plane crash was 'no accident.’" Meanwhile, Streisand’s Web site urges her fans to vote, warning that if Republicans win “there will not be any check on the power of the right wing. The result would be devastating for reproductive choice, the environment, civil liberties, Social Security and health care.” In short, “Republicans are about protecting the corporations while Democrats are about protecting people.” And this week's Late Show “Top Ten” contest: “Top Ten Signs Barbra Streisand Has Gone Nuts.”

3. Debut of Liberal NBC Producer’s “Journeys with George”
“Journeys with George,” the documentary of George W. Bush on his campaign bus and plane made by NBC News producer Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of liberal House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, will debut Tuesday night on HBO. Pelosi isn’t hiding her left-wing political leanings or the negative view she had of Bush before meeting him. On CNN’s NewsNight she conceded: “I was indoctrinated in the Democratic Party, so I came into this with a really sort of not the best impression of George Bush going into it and in the end I found him to be still really a decent guy.”

4. CyberAlert’s “Media Pundit Prognostications” Scorecard
CyberAlert’s third bi-annual “Media Pundit Prognostications” scorecard, a rundown of predictions for Senate and gubernatorial races as espoused by members of the media on television shows over the past few days, including the McLaughlin Group, CNN’s Capital Gang, FNC’s Beltway Boys and NBC’s Meet the Press.

5. Election Night Network Television Expectations
Upside down Statue of Liberty torch and what to expect for election night television network coverage.

6. A Hans Blix “Top Ten”
Letterman’s “Top Ten Signs Your Wife is Having an Affair with U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix.”

Clarification: The October 31 CyberAlert reported how after Dan Rather noted that the Wellstone memorial service “was made into a partisan Democratic rally,” Rather added, as if it deserved equal condemnation, “and the Republican candidate poses for interviews in front of a plane like the one in which the Senator died.” An update in the November 1 CyberAlert observed that “it turns out that Coleman did that in order to accommodate NBC’s Today on Wednesday morning, Hotline revealed.” 
The November 1 CyberAlert took Rather's description and made it more explicit: “Dan Rather should have been upset at Matt Lauer and NBC News producers, not Norm Coleman. The Coleman interview in front of the same model plane on which Paul Wellstone was flying when he was killed was done in front of the plane in order to accommodate NBC's Today show, Hotline reported on Wednesday.”
In fact, as several e-mailers have pointed out, the plane in front of which Coleman sat is not only not the same “model,” it is not even “like” the one on which Paul Wellstone died. Wellstone flew on a turbo-prop, Coleman stood or sat in front of a jet made by a different manufacturer. 
To see Coleman in front of the plane on Today, go to this CyberAlert item and scroll down: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021031.asp#1

MSNBC Anchor Casts Ballot for Liberal Democrat

     MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is doing all he can to get liberal Democrats elected -- including voting for them. Matthews, who will anchor MSNBC’s election night coverage, proudly boasted to his MSNBC colleague Phil Donahue on Monday night that he’d already voted for Maryland’s Democratic candidate for Governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend over Republican Bob Ehrlich.

     My MRC colleague Liz Swasey alerted me to this exchange from near the top of the November 4 Donahue:
     Donahue: “How about Mrs. Kennedy, will she win in Maryland? Bobby's oldest child.” 
     Matthews sighed: “Well, I voted for her but I don't think that's going to help. I think she's going to lose.”

     Matthews was interviewed by Donahue live at MSNBC’s New Jersey studios from which, I’d guess, Matthews will anchor MSNBC’s election night coverage -- which would explain why the Maryland resident cast an absentee ballot in advance.

Streisand: Wellstone Crash “No Accident”

     Barbra Streisand, the New York Post’s “Page Six” column asserted on Monday, “is privately saying that Senator Paul Wellstone's plane crash was 'no accident.’"

     Meanwhile, Streisand’s Web site urges her fans to vote, warning: “If the Republicans end up with control of the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the federal courts, there will not be any check on the power of the right wing. The result would be devastating for reproductive choice, the environment, civil liberties, Social Security and health care, as well as corporate accountability.” In short, she contended, “Republicans are about protecting the corporations while Democrats are about protecting people.”

     An excerpt from the November 4 New York Post “Page Six” item, by Richard Johnson with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson, which Brit Hume highlighted on his FNC show:

She's quoted bogus Shakespearean passages, misspelled the name of Rep. Dick Gephardt, and issued a position paper identifying Saddam Hussein as the "president of Iran." Now liberal activist Barbra Streisand is privately saying that Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane crash was "no accident."

"I was shocked but, knowing a bit about her, not surprised by her statement," a witness told The Post's Braden Keil. "She said there's more to this than meets the eye."...

Streisand expressed her paranoid conspiracy theory to an audience of interior designers bidding on the chance to decorate a planned addition to her Malibu estate.

The singer, who recently sold her triplex on Central Park West for half of what she originally asked three years ago, gave up looking for another apartment in New York and is sending her furniture out west, where she is building a separate building to house the antique items....

In a letter to the five candidates bidding for the job, she tells the prospects she won't have time to discuss anything until after the election.

"She then says they better be voting Democratic and goes into a long political missive about reproductive choice, the Supreme Court, the environment and the power of the right wing," adds the source.

Babs' Web site -- which hawks everything from soup mugs to golf balls -- consists largely of her political statements, with a big section defending her screw-ups.

Last year, her site urged fans to be more energy-efficient even while she criss-crossed the country on fossil fuel-sucking private jets, roamed the roads in gas-guzzling limos and SUVs, and vacationed on big power boats.

Streisand also urged her fellow Americans to set air conditioners at 78 degrees. One source told Keil that Babs kept the 16 rooms in her unoccupied Central Park West triplex as cold as a meat locker.

And don't forget the time Streisand urged everyone to conserve energy by hanging laundry outside on lines, rather than use electric clothes dryers. But when asked if Streisand herself was using a backyard clothesline, her spokesman said: "She never meant that it necessarily applied to her."

     END of Excerpt

     The item is online in full at: http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix.htm

     Streisand’s Web site calls on her fans to vote Democratic as she warned of disaster if Republicans win. An excerpt:

There has never been a more important time to get out the vote. If the Republicans end up with control of the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the federal courts, there will not be any check on the power of the right wing. The result would be devastating for reproductive choice, the environment, civil liberties, Social Security and health care, as well as corporate accountability.

Furthermore, as I've said before, there are three reasons to vote for Democrats: the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court. In fact, it is likely that two Supreme Court appointments will be made in the next two years. Without a Democratic Congress to seriously investigate and carefully consider the president's appointments, we may end up with the most right wing court in our nation's history, a court that may very well dismantle the rights and protections that we depend on... and will impact the country for decades to come. And remember, this was a president who was selected by the Supreme Court rather than the people.

The current administration and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has shown us that there is indeed a very real difference between the Republican and Democratic parties: Republicans are about protecting the corporations while Democrats are about protecting people....

     END of Excerpt

     For the page with that message, which links to lists of the Senate and House candidates she has endorsed: http://www.barbrastreisand.com/news_statements.html#endors

     Just over a month ago Streisand headlined a Los Angeles event to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The October 1 CyberAlert recounted: With celebrities from Christian Slater to Julie Louis-Dreyfus looking on, Barbra Streisand headlined a $6 million Democratic fundraiser Sunday night. Streisand sang a parody of The Way We Were: “Next Election Day I Pray/That the Country Will Deliver/A House Without Tom Delay!/We Need a Team Change/A Definite Regime Change/Oh, That Would Be a Dream Change/From the Way We Are.” She also charged that Republican control of the House has resulted in: “Poison in the water, salmonella in the food, carbon dioxide in the air and toxic waste in the ground.”

     For the list of celebrities who attended or donated, the complete lyrics to her modified version of The Way We Were (“As long as Democrats were the majority/I could sleep nights/Not weep nights”) and a RealPlayer clip from FNC of her singing it, go to: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021001.asp#1

     Want to get a little even with Streisand? You can submit your suggested entries to this week’s Late Show online “Top Ten” contest: “Top Ten Signs Barbra Streisand Has Gone Nuts.”

     To submit your ideas for entries on the list: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/contest/

     Those who come up with one of the ten suggestions picked by the Late Show Web staff will win a Late Show T-shirt -- and the satisfaction of saying something derogatory about Streisand. The winning list will not be on the Late Show on TV, just on the Late Show Web page, but I’ll be sure to relay it in CyberAlert next week.

     [Web Update: In a "Truth Alert" posted by BarbraStreisand.com on November 5, Steisand denied the substance of the New York Post story: http://www.barbrastreisand.com/news_truth.html]

Debut of Liberal NBC Producer’s
“Journeys with George”

     “Journeys with George,” the documentary of George W. Bush on his campaign bus and plane made by NBC News producer Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of liberal House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, will debut at 9:30pm EST/PST Tuesday night on HBO.

     The film, which Pelosi made with a video camera while she was assigned to the Bush campaign for 18 months as NBC’s only staffer covering him full time, is supposed to be pretty entertaining from what I’ve heard and the White House and other Bush friends have come around to the view that it helps Bush since it makes him seem to be a regular guy -- at least that’s their spin now that the film is about to go public.

     Pelosi isn’t hiding her left-wing political leanings or the negative view she had of Bush before meeting him. HBO’s Web page for the film describes her as a “left coast liberal.” On CNN’s NewsNight on Monday night, Pelosi conceded: “I was indoctrinated in the Democratic Party, so I came into this with a really sort of not the best impression of George Bush going into it and in the end I found him to be still really a decent guy.”

     But probably no more respect for his conservative policy positions.

     A story in the October 1 Washington Post suggested Pelosi both expressed and repressed her liberal predilections: 
     “In one scene, Pelosi, who is the daughter of House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and who made no secret of her liberal politics, was talking to Bush about why she should vote for him. She asked about the hungry, the unemployed and the homeless. 'Are you going to look out for the little guy?’ she baited.
     "'I'm a little guy,’ he said. 'Have you noticed? I'm about 5-11. My brother is 6 foot 3.’
     “Pelosi said in an interview that she did not dwell on unflattering moments and omitted plenty of Bush's verbal cartwheels. But she acknowledges that the film will bolster some people's misgivings about the president's intellectual heft. Pressed about what the movie shows about Bush, she says, 'You're going to get me in trouble.’
     “Nevertheless, White House aides say they are convinced the film humanizes Bush, and one senior official ventured to predict that it would help him get reelected. Karen P. Hughes, part of Bush's 'iron triangle’ of top campaign aides, said it shows that he 'enjoys having fun during downtime, which I think people will appreciate, and that he does not take himself too seriously, even though he takes his job seriously.’”

     The Post story added that the HBO executive who bought the film assumed Bush “was an ogre.” The story, which was unbylined because of a byline strike at the time, relayed: “Sheila Nevins, HBO's executive vice president of original programming, is a liberal Democrat but said she found Pelosi's Bush to be charming. 'I had thought he was an ogre,’ she said. 'I didn't know he was so quick on the uptake.’"

     For the HBO page about the film, with a promo for it in RealPlayer and QuickTime formats: http://www.hbo.com/americaundercover/journeys/

     It will debut on Tuesday night, November 5, at 9:30pm EST on HBO East, 9:30pm PST on HBO West and will re-run on Thursday night at 11:30pm EST on HBO2 East, 11:30pm PST on HBO2 West.

     For a complete rundown of all show times during November:
http://www.hbo.com/NASApp/schedule/ScheduleServlet?CHANNEL=All+Channels&ACTION
_DETAIL=DETAIL&ID=95256

CyberAlert’s “Media Pundit
Prognostications” Scorecard

     CyberAlert’s third bi-annual “Media Pundit Prognostications” scorecard, a rundown of predictions for Senate and gubernatorial races as espoused by members of the media, not political operatives, on television shows over the past few days.

     The predictions were collected by MRC analysts Geoffrey Dickens, Patrick Gregory and Brad Wilmouth and then I spent a good 90 minutes combining the forecasts into race-by-race lists of who predicted who to win.

     Those who made the predictions and on what shows:

     -- McLaughlin Group from the past weekend: Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift, Michael Barone of U.S. News, Washington Times Editorial Page Editor Tony Blankley and host John McLaughlin.

     -- CNN’s Capital Gang, November 2: Columnist Robert Novak, columnist Mark Shields, Time reporter/columnist Margaret Carlson, Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al Hunt and USA Today reporter Susan Page.

     -- NBC’s Meet the Press, November 3: Washington Post reporter/columnist David Broder, Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein and NBC News reporter Lisa Myers.

     -- FNC’s Beltway Boys, November 2: The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes and Roll Call’s Morton Kondracke.

     -- Fox News Sunday, November 3: NPR’s Juan Williams (only one who made solid predictions)

     -- MSNBC’s Nachman, November 4: Newsweek reporter and NBC News analyst Jonathan Alter.

     -- MSNBC’s Donahue, November 4: MSNBC host Chris Matthews.

     Below I’ve collated predictions by candidate so you can most easily see who picked each candidate. Each show did different races and not all on each show made predictions for every race, thus you’ll see different sets of names for each race. Below this list is a rundown of overall forecasts for party change in the Senate.

SENATE:

GOVERNORS:

     Now, some overall shift predictions:

     > Senate:
-- Novak: Net gain of 1 seat for Republicans
-- Page: Net gain of 2 seats for Democrats
-- Carlson: Net gain of 2 seats for Democrats
-- Hunt: Net gain of 1 seat for Democrats
-- Shields: Net gain of 3 seats for Democrats
-- Barone: Republicans win control by 1
-- Clift: Democrats hang on and could add 1 or 2 seats
-- McLaughlin: Republicans win control of Senate
-- Barnes and Kondracke: Republicans gain one, Senate at 50-50

     > House: 
-- Novak: Net gain of 4 for Republicans
-- Page: Net gain of 1 for Republicans
-- Carlson: Net gain of 5 for Republicans
-- Hunt: Net gain of 2 for Republicans
-- Shields: Net gain of 2 for Democrats
-- Barnes: Net gain of 2 for Republicans
-- Kondrake: Net gain of 2 for Republicans

     > Governors:
-- Page: Net gain of 7 for Democrats
-- Shields: Net gain of 6 for Democrats
-- Hunt: Net gain of 5 for Democrats
-- Carlson: Net gain of 4 for Democrats
-- Novak: Net gain of 4 for Democrats
-- Barnes: Net gain of 6 for Democrats
-- Kondracke: Net gain of 6 for Democrats

     A caveat, with all the back-and-forth on these shows and the hedging, combined with all my cutting and pasting, it is possible that I’ve jumbled some predictions, though I think I’ve done a pretty thorough job. But please, no wagering based on these predictions.

Election Night Network Television Expectations

     Upside down Statue of Liberty torch and what to expect for election night news coverage.

     -- See a still shot of the upside down torch on a fake Statue of Liberty. As reported in the November 4 CyberAlert, on Friday’s World News Tonight ABC’s Peter Jennings showed video of how two Palestinians, whom he described as “artists,” had created a mock up of the Statue of Liberty with the torch pointed downward in order to “symbolize,” Jennings helpfully explained, “how the U.S. was inverting its own values by supporting Israel.”

     The MRC’s Mez Djouadi has posted a still shot of what ABC showed. To see it, refer to the November 4 CyberAlert:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021104.asp#8

     -- Tonight, ABC, CBS and NBC plan to air an hour of election coverage during the last hour of prime time in the EST, CST and PST time zones (10pm EST/9pm CST, then 10pm PST), plus ABC will have an hour-long Nightline. Cable news channels CNN, CNBC, FNC and MSNBC plan coverage all night, going until at least 2am EST.

A Hans Blix “Top Ten”

     From the November 1 Late Show with David Letterman, the “Top Ten Signs Your Wife is Having an Affair with U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix.” Late Show Web page: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/

10. You notice little shampoo bottles from the Baghdad Hilton

9. She comes home reeking of Swedish meatballs

8. Parakeet's cage is lined with documents on Iraq's nuclear weapons program

7. Hears about Hans Blix meeting with Condoleezza Rice, she mutters, “bitch.” 

6. She has “U.N.-approved” tattooed on her ass

5. Always gets her hair done whenever the General Assembly is in session

4. It’s a good bet, considering she had affairs with every other Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector.

3. She complains about your unilateral decisions when renting a movie

2. She's on the phone: From the next room you hear the words “...threesome...” and “...Kofi Annan...”

1. Your kids look sort of Blixy  -- Brent Baker