The outrage of the week, and every week, is the fraud perpetrated by the media and politcal pundits.

Why does the media find it so difficult to admit creating the so-called John McCain phenomenon? . These circumstances are not unusual, unaccountable facts or occurrences. Self-criticism and claims of innocence by the media are insincere and softly spoken. Indeed, farming McCain was carefully cultivated by the media from the moment they were stunned by the seemingly unstoppable George W. Bush money train.

Contrary to political belief, the American people weren't so naive as not to notice the media's McCain saturation, rivaling the daily doses of Bill Clinton, long before the "GWB Express" loaded up and left the station. Clearly, Bush's $70 million was chump change compared to the media's priceless magic wand of exposure waiving back and forth over McCain's head.

McCain is a clever maverick with a superior character bio. And he certainly knows how to promote his own appeal of "straight talk" to the broad brush of moderate voters, be they Democrat, Republican or independent. But the fresh wind behind the war hero and campaign finance reformer will certainly blow itself out when he gets too close to winning. Alas, the media will raise the barometer and still the waters as quickly as it was lowered to put the gale behind his sail.

Unfortunately, there's a somewhat sinister moral to the other half of McCain's "princerella" story. Al Gore is the media's chosen heir to the throne. Bill Bradley was promoted to make it more than just a one horse race around the Democratic track. John McCain was simply created to bust Bush and humiliate the Republicans.

In the end, the political world does revolve around the money tree, not only for campaign finance favors, but for the selfish interests of hotly contested campaign spending. It's not about the candidates or the people. It's simply fodder for the pundit parade and the media's windfall from political ads. And, yes, the media does decide elections, and that's more than a little dangerous for democracy.