Politico is reporting that Rick Davis, of the McCain Campaign, has sent a letter to NBC News protesting their "irresponsible journalism" and "lack of objectivity" in the presidential campaign. The letter comes after NBC News' Andrea Mitchell passed on Obama Campaign suggestions that John McCain cheated at the Rick Warren Forum by hearing Obama's questions and answers ahead of time. Davis, in the letter below, requests a meeting with the President of NBC News, to discuss the network's obvious Obama bias:

Here is the text of the letter:

August 17, 2008
Mr. Steve Capus
President, NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

Steve:

We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.

Nowhere was this more evident than with NBC chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell's comments on "Meet the Press" this morning. In analyzing last night's presidential forum at Saddleback Church, Mitchell expressed the Obama campaign spin that John McCain could only have done so well last night because he "may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama." Here are Andrea Mitchell's comments in full:

Mitchell: "The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/17/08)

Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night's forum at Saddleback Church. Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood in any way, Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of "Meet the Press" viewers with no indication that 1.) There's not one shred of evidence that it's true; 2.) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren's idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, "I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea;" 3.) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot.

Indeed, instead of taking a critical journalistic approach to this spin, Andrea Mitchell did what has become a pattern for her of simply repeating Obama campaign talking points.

This is irresponsible journalism and sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle. Instead of examining the Obama campaign's spin for truth before reporting it to more than 3 million NBC News viewers, Andrea Mitchell simply passed along Obama campaign conspiracy theories. The fact is that during Senator Obama's segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed. In the forum, John McCain clearly demonstrated to the American people that he is prepared to be our next President.....

We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC's lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC.

Sincerely,

Rick Davis
Campaign Manager
John McCain 2008

Obama and his minions at NBC News could see on Saturday how poorly Obama contrasted with John McCain. They are desperately trying to find a way to explain away how poorly Obama did in comparison with McCain. They are seizing on the fact that McCain arrived at Saddleback Church several minutes after the forum began, insinuating McCain must have been listening in his car to Obama's questions and answers. This despite the fact McCain was in a Secret Service Motorcade for those first few minutes of questions and then held in a Green Room where he could not hear. McCain gave his word when he arrived that he had not heard any of the broadcast. Obama's desperate attack makes no sense for the following reasons:

1. McCain would never risk doing such a thing with aides and Secret Service around to witness such a violation. He knows how things leak out in campaigns and he would be foolish to risk his entire campaign over something so silly.

2. Even if (which he did not) he heard the first several answers (again, he did not!) it does not explain how McCain did so much better for THE ENTIRE HOUR than did Barack Obama!

3. John McCain stayed a POW for three more years, enduring unspeakable torture, because he WOULD NOT VIOLATE THE RULES - the Military Code of Conduct in leaving ahead of those who had been captured prior to him. The Obama Campaign does not understand what "Honor" is. If they did, they would know how foolish it is to accuse a man with John McCain's sense of honor and duty of violating the rules over something so petty when he has proven his character in these matters under far more difficult circumstances.

Folks, the Obama Campaign knows they are in a world of hurt. They are fighting back like a wounded animal, and they look desperate. NBC News has been Obama's willing accomplice the entire election cycle in demonizing Hillary Clinton, and now in trying to hurt John McCain. I applaud the McCain Campaign for requesting this meeting and publicly exposing NBC News for the biased fraud it has become.