From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

Brooke Gladstone is out this week. I'm Bob Garfield.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama made his way through a whirlwind tour this week, taking him

inside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq to the mountains of Jordan and through the streets

of Berlin, where more than 200,000 adoring fans waited to see him.

And throughout this tour, the media followed.

Well, just hours after Barack Obama landed in Baghdad, the Iraqi government...

...this first place that you visited here in Iraq was a southern town of

troops in Kuwait.

And they followed.

There you see it, Barack Obama's touching down in Jordan. It was held on a mountain top against the backdrop of the bottom.

And followed.

We're here, of course, in advance of Barack Obama's stars.

I met with Barack Obama here in Amman.

We talked about all of that with the senator today.

The Obama coverage frenzy led to outrage within the McCain campaign,

which, to illustrate its anger, issued mock press

passes to those unfortunate reporters still stateside covering McCain. The passes read JV. Squad

left behind to report in America. In fact, the McCain campaign thought the media's attention

on Obama crossed over the line into love.

The media's love affair with Barack Obama is all-consuming.

I felt this thrilling up my leg.

...