IN HIS eloquent speech on race relations, Barack Obama acknowledged his strong personal tie to his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., but repudiated Wright's  "view that sees white racism as endemic in America, rather than something that can be, and is being, changed."

News media jumped on the Rev. Wright's controversial remarks - but ignores even more inflammatory beliefs of two fundamentalist preachers allied to Republican frontrunner John McCain, the latest Mother Jones magazine notes.

One of them is televangelist Rod Parsley, who calls Islam a "false religion," urging Christians to wage war to destroy it. McCain called Parsley his "spiritual guide" and appeared with Parsley at a political rally in Cincinnati last month, just before the Ohio primary.

Parsley regularly denounces "activist judges," civil libertarians, homosexuals and adulterers. In January, he compared members of Planned Parenthood to Nazis, according to the Mother Jones column by David Corn.

McCain's spiritual guide includes a chapter about the need to destroy Islam in Silent No More, his 2005 book. He wrote:

"I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."

McCain also stirred controversy recently by accepting support from the Rev. John Hagee, a Texas televangelist who calls the Catholic Church "the great whore" and a "false cult system."

After complaints arose, the GOP frontrunner said: "I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics."  Yet McCain never renounced Hagee's endorsement. Nor has McCain ever challenged Parsley's call for a new holy war.

Why is the national news media silent on these issues?

News media jumped on the Rev. Wright's controversial remarks - but ignores even more inflammatory beliefs of two fundamentalist preachers allied to Republican frontrunner John McCain, the latest Mother Jones magazine notes.

One of them is televangelist Rod Parsley, who calls Islam a "false religion," urging Christians to wage war to destroy it. McCain called Parsley his "spiritual guide" and appeared with Parsley at a political rally in Cincinnati last month, just before the Ohio primary.

Parsley regularly denounces "activist judges," civil libertarians, homosexuals and adulterers. In January, he compared members of Planned Parenthood to Nazis, according to the Mother Jones column by David Corn.

McCain's spiritual guide includes a chapter about the need to destroy Islam in Silent No More, his 2005 book. He wrote:

"I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."

McCain also stirred controversy recently by accepting support from the Rev. John Hagee, a Texas televangelist who calls the Catholic Church "the great whore" and a "false cult system."

After complaints arose, the GOP frontrunner said: "I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics."  Yet McCain never renounced Hagee's endorsement. Nor has McCain ever challenged Parsley's call for a new holy war.

Why is the national news media silent on these issues?