Their reporters are ashamed, so why aren’t they?
Yesterday, I noticed these very strange first two
paragraphs of a Politico story:
The liberal blogosphere was abuzz Friday with
news that a friend of Sarah and Todd Palin had tried to seal his
divorce records.Surely, the Netroots speculated, that friend must be the
unnamed business partner whom this week’s edition of the National
Enquirer alleges — without proof so far — was romantically
linked to Palin. The McCain campaign’s characterization of the
story as a “vicious lie” seemed to only fuel more speculation.
The reporter makes explicit that he (or at least they. The they
of the media and the Politico) are being driven by the netroots. At
least the Politico is self-conscious enough (or post-modern enough)
to admit its role in the farce. He goes on to note:
Those who couldn’t make it to the Palmer courthouse in person
were out of luck for much of Friday, since the court’s website
crashed from all the traffic directed to it by a link on Andrew
Sullivan’s blog.
It couldn’t be clearer that the media is not being driven by the
responsible lefty news outlets like Talking Points Memo, but by the
delusional crazies like DailyKos and FireDogLake (and, now, sadly
Andrew Sullivan, once a serious person).
In that context, Diane
West quotes Steve Schmidt in the Washington Times
Mr. Schmidt said. “Many reporters have called the campaign and
have apologized for asking the questions and said, `Our editors are
making us do this, and I am ashamed.'”
These are the same editors that are signing off on stories, and
probably encouraging them, like Vogle’s. It is clear who to blame
both for the irresponsible coverage and the self-destruction of the
media’s credibility.
At this rate, they will continue to destroy themselves and elect
John McCain and Sarah Palin. In a twisted, way I think, “bless
their hearts.” They’ll defeat themselves and Barack Obama. Two
birds with one stone.