Your Liberal Media At Work

Columbia Journalism Review:

Talk about burying a lede. Some 1,100 words into his 1,400-word piece (“‘Substantive’ Press Is Taken for a Spin”) in today’s Washington Post, uber-critic Howie Kurtz writes, “While some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they’re piling on, pundits on the right are jumping ship.”

The news here is even buried within its own sentence. Again, just to be clear: some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they’re piling on.

Stories like this are the main reason that my attention level immediately drops to nothing when some dingbat commenter or pundit starts yammering about the "liberal media."

People who pay attention have noted for years that the press, until very recently, has bent over backwards to let Republicans and conservatives say any old bullshit they want without bothering to challenge or fact check them. In some cases, like that of the NY Times' Judith Miller, they've become unapologetic cheerleaders for the Bush Administration. It's been heartening to see that, despite some reversion to their bootlicking ways, (particularly whenever McCain's military serice is brought up),  the press has actually started asking some tough questions. Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions, they apparently think Sarah Palin's not up to that, leaving it to the right wing pundits to ask the questions about Palin's competence that need to be asked.