In the past I have noted that it's pointless for conservatives to complain about liberal bias in the media. It's just reality and we must push on in spite of the mainstream media often being the propaganda arm of the Democrat party. Sometimes, though, an article is so striking that I just can't help but highlight the absurdity.

In this case, I had to actually scroll through the article. I was sure I was reading an opinion piece or op-ed of some kind. But no. This is "news," as reported by CBS.

A short excerpt from the beginning of the article:

Facing near unanimous Republican opposition and a serious divide among his own Democrats, President Barack Obama is using a highly unusual address to Congress on Wednesday to sell the country on the need to reform America's health care system.

The president took office vowing to overhaul a system whose costs are raging out of control while as many as 50 million Americans are without health insurance. Thousands of households talk bankruptcy daily because of medical bills and health care consumes nearly 20 percent of the gross domestic product.

But a failure among Mr. Obama's fellow Democrats to solidify their support behind his reforms, intense Republican attacks against the overhaul - including blatant falsehoods - and sagging poll numbers pushed the president into making Wednesday's speech...

While polls show most Americans want to see the system changed, Republicans have inflamed the debate, and some moderate Democrats in so-called swing states - fearing punishment at the polls next year - have refused to back Mr. Obama on the government-run public health care option, a measure White Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CBS' "The Early Show" was still on the table...

With Obama's approximately 35-minute speech still being written, much by the president himself, White House officials said the president will "answer all the major questions" - including the sticky issue of how to pay for getting coverage for the 50 million Americans who lack it.

Some quick observations from the above bolded text?

• "sell the country on the need to reform America's health care system." - There isn't too much disagreement that we need to reform the health care system. The president doesn't need to sell America on that. He needs to sell America on his version of reform.
  
  
• "raging out of control" - Rather colorful language for what should simply be a factual piece of reporting.
  
  
• "50 million Americans" - That number has been pretty well debunked.
  
  
• "Thousands of households talk bankruptcy daily" - Unsupported emotionalism that is more appropriate for a political campaign speech than factual reporting by the media.
  
  
• "20 percent of the gross domestic product" - Closer to 16%--and that's the difference between 1/5th of the economy and 1/6th.
  
  
• "failure among Mr. Obama's fellow Democrats to solidify their support behind his reforms" - Nice swipe at all the Democrats other than the president! It isn't the president who has failed, it's all the other Democrats. And how can the other Democrats fail to solidy their support behind "his" reforms when Obama hasn't proposed any yet!
  
  
• "including blatant falsehoods... Republicans have inflamed the debate" - More unprofessional and unsupported swings, this time at Republicans. Again, this is more appropriate for a campaign speech, not a piece of factual news.
  
  
• "so-called swing states" - Huh? "So-called?" It's hard to figure out what the angle is there, but it sure comes across as slighting those swing states.
  
  
• "much [written] by the president himself" - No puff-piece reporting by the mainstream media would be complete without trying to elevate the perceived stature of the president by suggesting he has a significant hand in writing what is said tonight. Is it really necessary to mention this? He's supposedly a master author of two autobiographies... We get it, he's intelligent.

Who wrote this? The Obama Administration? Perhaps what the president was "writing himself" was the first three paragraphs of this article?

After the first three paragraphs the article started sounding more like news. But, wow, those first three paragraphs were over the top! Even for CBS!