"Incidents like this get reported piecemeal, in isolation, by our national press, but the clear implications are almost never realized and/or explained."

Which is exactly why the major news outlets have missed some of the most significant news stories of the Bush administration, and why I rely on blogs to show me the big picture.

Traditional news organizations are terrible at connecting the dots, and are reluctant to assign motives for fear of being accused of "bias". Bloggers, on the other hand, are better at noticing a pattern of behavior and tying seemingly unrelated actions together.

Keep up the good work.

. . . if Lauer, Malveaux, Russert et al had discussed her trip to Syria truthfully and intelligently instead of repeating their mindless drivel. She'd probably be even more popular than she is now.

I had on the Today Show the morning of Lauer's embarrassing conversation with Russert about Pelosi and I had to change the channel. I also sent the Today Show a strongly worded e-mail. I suggest others do the same.

. . . according to David Broder in his Washington Post online chat last Friday.

"I think the MoveOn ad on Gen. Petraeus was disgraceful, and it probably did serious damage to the effort to shorten the Iraq war."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/09/12/DI2007091202014.html

If he really believes this he should be outraged that our Legislators would let their perceptions of the war be influenced by an ad -- any ad. He should be apoplectic.

But he's smart enough to know that the Republican outrage is just a tactic to change the subject, and he's willing to help them out any way he can. He always has a few spare column inches to help the Republicans feign outrage at something.

And at the end of the online discussion he writes "I want to thank all of you for a stimulating hour. Now I have to go back to work." He so graciously indulged the hoi-polloi for an hour and now he has to go back to work.

Go read the whole thing. It's Broderiffic!