Unfortunately part of the problem is simply a market-driven thirst for gossip. One need only remember the phrase "missing white women" to know that there's a huge market for inconsequential fluff and let's not even gat started with Anna Nichole Smith coverage.

Of course that doesn't explain the rush to get things out there, before even being able to evaluate their truth, but it does help explain why poliitical covereage is so bad, and how stupid story lines can find traction. (eg. Al Gore invented the internet...)

Fred Hiatt had already revealed himself to be a serial liar with the Plame editorial, so the fact that he talks out of both sides of his mouth now is unsurprising.

Considering the degree to which the WaPo has been an accessory to the trashing of our democratic process through the dissemination of officila lies, it's also unsurprising that he would be disdainful of the democratic process actual taking root and governing the country.

I tend to agree...Chaos was in fact the goal and it has succeeded.

http://phd9.blogspot.com/2007/01/bucky-posted-this-comment-at-glenn.html

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011888.php

Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their plan.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0304.marshall.html

"I will veto it if it comes to my desk," Bush said from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room joined by family members of veterans and troops in combat

But didn't much of the communication that's now being scrutinized take place AFTER the last election? Wasn't the administration already on notice that their lies could be called out and they proceeded to lie anyway?

I'm of the opinion, that they were so accustomed to having their own way and never being questioned substansively that even after Congress changed hands, it STILL didn't occur to them they could now be held accountable for their behavior.

Never mind......

You'll get better exercise if your efforts are applied to someone whose grasp on reality isn't quite so tenuous. Of course, as all Hell breaks loose around the administration as a result of the Congress's new-found reason to exist, ALL the trolls are starting to show signs of wear.

The White House caused U.S. attorneys to be prosecuted - Glenn via shooter..

The White House caused U.S. attorneys to be fired - Glenn in real life......

Could someone get Castro on the phone so we can find out how this is done, please

No need to ask Castro, getting Pravda er uh I mean General Electric, on board as a propoganda arm of the ruling junta is as easy as 1..2..$3,000,000,000!

We're all still waiting on that reasoned argument.

Oooh, what scary, scary journalists. Not acting, for one tiny moment, as the democrat party's toadies

With reasoning like that who needs juvenile snark.

I hear they're about to have an opening for someone who specializes in taunting..

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1153

If today's Democratic worldview would have been in place in 1941....

In one breath he ignores what Democrats were like at the time, and that all the "appeasers" were "America First" Republicans

Civil Rights? The longest filibuster in Senate history was against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by none other than the grand old man of the Democratic Party

Without even pausing for air he then ignores what they are like now but credits what they were like at the time.

His efforts to have it both ways reveal a liar of the first order....

But then you already knew that!

If I say that Clinton was a self-serving scumbag who fired 93 US attorneys for no other reason than to protect Rosty does that mean everything is just peachy and our current AJ ISN"T a serial liar who couldn't be trusted to order lunch let alone run the Justice Department?

That's what I thought.

is how easy it is to manufacture a story line out of thin air

All one need to is preface it with "people are saying" or "word on the street is" and any old pile of bullshit can then become news.

Of course, any campaign who's press secretary can use the phrase "snarky cynicism" in a sentence is going to have an unfair advantage with people like me!

Political reporting has become a degraded and decadent PEOPLE MAGAZINE / NATIONAL INQUIRER game of gossip, and there is no attempt to illuminate the pressing issues which affect the lives of every American

To some degree, the problem is simply American's interest in shiny objects and the media's desire to pander to the lowest common denominator.

There are ways to combat it.

The example of the successful indepedent musician as being one way to break through the BS and actually reach people directly is a good one. I respectfully suggest that the independent blogger is another such example!

Not to speak for Glenn but I suspect he asks himself 2 questions each day. What's happened in the last 24 hrs? And What can I do to make a difference?

When the Congress was a Republican rubber stamp, it made sense to highlight examples of Republican talking out of both sides of their mouth concerning our Contitutional protections. Now that the Democrats have taken over Congress, the fact that the media has totally failed to adjust to the changing landscape and is in fact is fighting hard to return to the Golden age of one-party rule, highlight their failures has simply become the most pressing need at the moment.

Please pretend that all the words in my previous post agreed in tense and made sense....

Thank you

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