Letters to the Editor
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"it's part of the culture in which we live these days"
That snippet (I was lurking on the thread last night, but too tired from a long meeting on a local issue to be able to contribute) from Brokaw, while accurate, is perhaps the weakest link in his otherwise brave and telling chastisement of the political (and, in fact, the general) press. The first part of the sentence quoted above, Look, I'm not just picking on us, I think, deflects too much blame from the the press. The mindless obsession with the horse race aspect of the campaign is just too much of a piece with the drive-by, content-free aspect of political reporting. The New Hampshire primary result, thankfully, is a complete and utter refutation of that, and Brokaw sees part of that refutation while attempting to deflect more of the blame than he should.
Dowd's comments are just as telling, as she documents the reaction within the Times newsroom. By noting how these vapid stenographers reacted to a glimpse of raw personality and just how wrongly they interpreted both the actual event and its impact on the primary, Dowd is simply writing the first paragraph of the obituary of the current approach in political commentary.
Aside: can we start a pool on the identity of the "security issues" reporter? My money is on our buddy Michael Gordon, since he starts by observing that We are at war while, in fact, we really are in the midst of an illegal occupation.