We absolutely must get some of our fine young Regency graduates on the Pulitzer Committee immediately. You know who to call, right?

Right, Karl?

If young, hungry reporters know they can win Pulitzer by being adversarial, they might do it. And protest loudly and often if someone (like their editor) tries to bury their Big Scoop.

At least, that is what my optimistic self thinks. You don't want to hear what my pessimistic self thinks. :-)

I'm glad Glenn is writing about a reporter who is doing his job and doing it well. It's important to single these people out and give them the applause they deserve.

Thanks Glenn. And thanks Charlie.

Perhaps now a few other journalists will begin to behave in a more thorough, investigative manner, if only out of self-interest.

It's always surprising to me how many people don't get that intellectual honesty, integrity, and altruistic behavior actually help the doer as much as it does the other guy. Honoring people who do good work helps; also helping (one hopes) is recent research from the evolutionary biologists, showing that altruism is actually an advantage.

The single best hope for this country (and humankind in general) is that we figure out traditional self-interested behavior typically works against our self-interests....

I just listened to the fellow who won a Pulizter for his stories about corruption in the Alabama community college system, and he commented that he was only "doing the kind of basic reporting that 98% of my colleagues do everyday". I immediately snickered and thought that if even 25% of reporters were doing this level of work, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in now: a out of control executive that reserves the right to ignore laws via signing statements, and a press that "raps" with the White House political advisor at a party while the Constitution burns.

Indeed, things would be quite different if the media actually did some investigative reporting as the norm rather than the exception.

That was the serendipitous way I misread the end of the last sentence.

Of course it is. After all Edwards does have a dandy's peccadillo for his hair - clearly he is a sissy-boy and just another out-of-touch effete elitist.

Constructing senstences solely out of talking-point jargon is a blast.

Politico just started recruiting proposed questions for their upcoming GOP "debate." (http://dyn.politico.com/debate/showquestions.cfm)

Here's mine:

by dcobranchi from Fayetteville on 04.16.2007 at 06:46 PM

How much did you pay for your last haircut? Evidently (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0407/The_Hairs_Still_Perfect.html) this is considered important information that voters should consider.

Richard Wolffe (from the Tony Snow round-table): “[Bloggers] want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information. … It’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender.”

Obviously, Charlie Savage is thus not a real journalist and should be thrown out of the Kool Kids' Insider Reporter Klub for his treasonous work.

We absolutely must get some of our fine young Regency graduates on the Pulitzer Committee immediately. You know who to call, right?

Right, Karl?

... and on the Boston Globe editorial staff too. Or we just get one of our "sugar daddies" to buy 'em. Or shut 'em down.

Cheers,

... because he covered what the White House does, not just what it says ...

It makes you want to cry to know that they are correct; very reporters cover what government at any level does, only what they say they do.

Sad, damn sad.

Most of our over-paid "journalists" would much rather have a summer getaway in Duck and send their kids to the Ivys than have a Pulitzer. Pulitzers, after all, are for journalists, not entertainers--and especially not for bad entertainers.

GG:

I first learned about Savage's winning of a Pulitzer Prize today in the midst of working on a post about this item from The Politico by Ben Smith -- entitled "The Hair is Still Perfect"

Oh, Glenn, *snap*! Condescend this, John Harris.

How much did you pay for your last haircut? Evidently (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0407/The_Hairs_Still_Perfect.html) this is considered important information that voters should consider.

-- dcobranchi

Now that was damned funny, dcobr!

We must live in a pretty strange country when the man who swears to execute faithfully the laws of the land breaks that faith and swears no laws need apply to him. It remains a certain bafflement how a land that fought a revolution to free itself from the arbitrary powers of the king could now find itself ruled by a dunce Decider who fails to accept the lessons of history. The assertion of power so stark must be opposed now. And always.

...had gotten his deserved Pulitzer in 2000 for his coverage of the lies, coverup, deception and political games involved in Junta Boy's Texas Air National Guard service, I'd be more impressed -- that might have mattered when it could still have mattered, in 2000.

For the Republic -- too little, too late.

And for the mouthbreathers -- everything Rather was raked over the coals for was true, and known in 2000. He was duped into swallowing fabricated documentation of facts already known from other sources, uncovered by citizen journalists like Martin Heldt, Maia Cowen, Paul Lukasizak, Joel Swadesh, and others, right here on Salon's Table Talk. So spare me.

As soon as the November election was over, the media clearly emerged as the main enemy of the Democrats, the reality-based community, and the American people. These last few days seem to be the first hopeful sign that the crumbling of the right continues to expand from the party realm to the media.

In this light, the continuing media obsession over Imus's long-overdue come-uppance is something to be welcome--however narcissistic it is, and however much it crowds out coverage of real scandals, such as Gonzales/DoJ/US Attorneys.

It's to be welcomed because it signals a techtonic shock to the insular media elite. They can still pretend to be above it all, but they know damn well that they're pretending now. And that bell can never be unrung. They can run, but they cannot hide.