Chuck Todd and his cohorts do not investigate, they narrate. To them, Washington is a collection of unscripted character types who engage in playbook-driven political theater - equal parts Realty TV and Superbowl. They decode the playbook for their viewers and prognosticate in pursuit of an ultimate "win/lose" narrative. That is what they understand "reporting" to be.

Veracity is irrelevant to this mindset unless it impacts the political chances of the players - if, say, a politician is caught in a lie that might be hurtful later at the ballot box. And adversarial reporting only gets one banned from the locker-room - that assemblage of access-driven backstory and parlor gossip that informs the players' odds - so why go there at all?

Comments are back up again as of 2:15 Central - but still a bit creepy that they disappeared just after the "Talk" segment had aired.

As of 2pm (Central Time), NPR has removed all comments from Shepard's "NPR Ombudsman" blog.

Camille, always a pleasure to take in your perspective. But you do yourself a disservice here by considering the text of Obama's Cairo speech as a discreet item. Obama's delivery and the accompanying visuals of venue and audience were critical elements to the endeavor.

To see and hear this president utter the words "assalaamu alaykum" with almost pitch-prefect timing and cadence, and to gauge the reaction of an astonished Cairo audience - this was theater of the highest order - an electric moment. A transcript cannot capture its full power. And there were many such moments in the Cairo speech.

The NYT article is problematic on so many levels: the anonymous sourcing, the dearth of background information on Said Ali al-Shihri's original detention and extradition to Saudi Arabia (why was this done, and under what circumstances?), the puzzling - and disorienting - lack of a clear timeline (can a years-long, ongoing narrative honestly be described as a "development", as the first sentence of paragraph 5 suggests?) But what really jumped out at me when the article first appeared on the NYT's website last night was the headline: "Freed by the U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief"

Compare this to the end of paragraph 2: "He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen."

Being "released" to a Saudi rehabilitation program really isn't equivalent to being "freed", although the latter makes for much more dramatic copy.

Glenn:

Please keep up the great work. Your blog has been helping to keep me sane during these extraordinary times.

I was really astonished to find the following posted today on another "left-wing blog" (Think Progress, of all places): "The Hayden Record: Condoning Torture, Destroying Evidence, Misleading Congress.....Former CIA analyst John Brennan was compelled to withdraw his name from consideration, after a number of bloggers, led by Glenn Greenwald, raised concerns that he had supported Bush’s interrogation policies. Hayden did one better than Brennan – he carried them out, defended them, and in some cases, lied about them....." http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/08/hayden-record/

Note that "bloggers" are now solely responsible for Brennan's so-called demise. No suggestion that the Obama team might have reached unfavorable conclusions about Brennan independently, and no mention of mainstream pressure from non-blogging citizens & professional groups. And this from a "progressive" blog!

It is amazing how quickly this viral story-line has replicated & embedded itself in our national discourse.

Financial markets are notoriously skittish things - It wouldn't surprise me at all if some of the "official" exuberance surrounding the Obama pics is strategic, a soothing balm orchestrated to bolster confidence and avert further panic inside the financial sectors.

In a way, we are watching some very good theater.

I do agree that the media ought to be skeptical of all political appointments, and should apply an even-handed scrutiny to these appointees as a matter of professional duty to their readers (yes, it is a duty!) But the announcement of these posts is still quite fresh.

The initial off-the-cuff reactions are very positive - perhaps there is some projection here? Almost no-one is safe from the pernicious effects of the crisis, including journalists. All but the most partisan Republican hacks will want Obama to have a strong start, right out of the gate. But of course this doesn't excuse slack journalism.

But it does strike me that some particular delicacy is required here in the vetting process. Journalists need to do their homework this time 'round, to be thorough.

Zhang chose to emphasize such historical markers as the Tang Dynasty in the opening ceremonies because these were periods of relative Chinese openness to and interest in the outside world - analogous to these games and China's reemergence on the world scene.

John, do you really believe that the opening ceremonies of China's first-ever olympics - a source of immense national and cultural pride for so many Chinese - would be an appropriate venue to explore "centuries of decadence, famine, civil war, peasant revolts, Japanese annihilation, communism"? I'd say not.

I find it rather troubling that Ivans had a heads-up on the pending prosecution, before any charges were filed, in a case of such national importance. What gives at the DOJ?

".....(H)e's still mostly the candidate of coastal liberals, lefty intellectuals, Ivy League check-writers and African-Americans....."

Joan:

I really don't know what to make of this statement. The man won heartily in Iowa, in Kansas, in Montana (although people do write checks in these states as well)... he's been at his greatest disadvantage in the "lefty liberal coastal" states of California & New York.

While Obama's off-the-cuff comments seem to have given considerable offense to the coastal media elites, I can't see from the polls that they've gotten any real traction in the non-coastal, non-lefty, non-intellectual, non-Ivy-League, non-check-writing minority-free communities of Pennsylvania & Indiana, wherever those may be. Or even the lefty liberal non-coastal minority-intensive heartland city of Chicago, which I call home.