In the last several days we’ve seen a massive effort to manage the news on both sides of the aisle- the Democrats have had their convention in Boston and projected an unendingly positive, energetic show of unity. Smile ‘till it hurts boys!

Meanwhile, the Republicans have deployed some of the most underhanded, deceitful propaganda attempts in recent memory to smear John Kerry and prop up George W. Bush.

A couple of weeks ago the New Republic published a report that the Pakistani government had been instructed to capture a high-value al Qaeda target during the Democratic convention. Presumably that would knock Kerry off the front page and give Bush a good headline about fighting “terra.” Pakistan couldn’t find Osama this week, but they did find a bad guy last Sunday and held off releasing the information until hours before John Kerry took the stage for his acceptance speech. Mission accomplished.

On Wednesday word leaked that the budget deficit had ballooned to $420 billion. This report was almost certainly finished, but it’s release is being delayed presumably for today, Friday- the day most Americans have better things to do than watch the national news. Update: The bad news has been dumped as of 12:30 PM- the actual number is $445 Billion. Fiscal conservative my ass.

Just last week the White House successfully dumped the news that the “destroyed” records of George W. Bush’s service (rather, lack of service) in the Air National Guard had materialized. The White House dropped the documents shortly before the national news broadcasts, so even if you did watch the news on Friday it was still unlikely that they covered it.

But here’s the good news: All the efforts that went into knocking Kerry off of the front page today failed. The deficit numbers have already been reported widely, diminishing the desperate White House’s attempts at damage control.

Though there are exceptions (A CNN anchor actually holding up a print out of that days Republican talking points during an interview at the convention springs to mind) it’s clear that the mainstream press is no longer playing along with the administration.

What a contrast this is to the fawning press that drooled over the president as he arrived on the USS Lincoln and declared “Mission Accomplished.”

Has the press at long last realized that you can cover the president without also covering for the president?