*However,* in this one lone case, I feel like Power's remark should have been taken off the record, and I believe I'd say the same if it was a Republican. There is a standard in this country of granting interview with the occasional comment offered off the record, and the "off the record" mention itself seems to come naturally--it's not like she said "oh hell! I can't believe I just said that!"

is that it creates a situation in which politician and reporter are, for a moment, co-conspirators. And that's a slippery slope.

What a wise man he must have been! For a very long time the United States had been an inspiration to the world,except for the iniquity of slavery which was something for the American people to reconcile with their ideals of freedom. However, there might have been no French Revolution had there not been the American revolt against arbitrary power and the effect of both revolutions spread through Europe. We could say that it is still a work-in-progress. It's just a coincidence that the incumbent in the White House shares the same first name with King George 111, the English monarch against whose oppressive rule the colonists rebelled but I've a cloudy memory of some oracle claiming that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. When I saw Carol Coleman, the Irish reporter on YouTube, being given a large dose of condescension by President George W. Bush it was indeed farcical as he told her that the Irish didn't understand "American values". He then went into the soft-soap routine about the Irish and America but most of us are all grown-up over here now. He was just containing his temper that a whippersnapper like Ms.Coleman should have the nerve to ask for explanations and there was some farce in that. Neverteless, it's tragedy that is

uppermost when you have to face the reality that American foreign policy has been responsible for the deaths and maiming of untold numbers of people in Iraq and the destruction of a country which, despite Saddam Hussein's despotism, had excellent hospitals and healthcare, a modern infrastructure, was reasonably secular.

I don't think that the whole world, especially the anglophone one for obvious reasons, has ever watched an American Presidential electionwith quite so much trepidation. The American people deserve so much better but, I, personally, would be less seduced by novelty than by sheer grit, intelligence and the determination to restore your international reputation as well as helping your ailing economy to recover. Your media appears to be a travesty of what it should be but I'm glad that the Brits (and we) have Jeremy Paxman on this side of the Atlantic. We need him.

How many here think Peev will get any other interviews in the next ten years or so, from US politicians or staff? I predict she will be shut out. So, let's assume that US reporters take the same tack, how long do you think it will take to blacklist all the reporters in the US and/or learn the game of saying even less of substance in any given interview? A week, a month, two months?

Think it wouldn't happen? Think again. Imagine every interview fended off skillfully, like Mrs. Bill Clinton does so well.

Tucker Carlson just had a gaffe. You know, the old Washington thing where a politician accidentally tells the truth? Our good old MSM knows where its bread is buttered. Ask real questions? Please! That said, the British media isn't completely superior thanks to their laws regarding reporting. Try checking "Lobbygate" and Tony Blair. American ex-pat reporter Greg Palast was unable to do the story due to the laws in Merry Old England. And you know what Blair did while being Prime Minister...

Does he wear spats as well, sport an ivory-handled Malacca cane or any other poncey/arty accoutrements? Just having a laugh but the words of an almost forgotten nursery rhyme xome to mind:

"little Tommy Tucker sang for his supper.

What shall we give him but brown bread and butter".

My admiration grows daily.

But I actually agreed with you, regarding the decline in public trust of the media. I think CNN stands apart from the others--it had much higher figures in 1998, and consequently dropped much further.

omooex, again, just to be clear, this is not a matter of my opinion, but rather was a finding of a series of public opinion polls by Pew, I believe taken every two years. So, within some margin of error, it is fact, rather than opinion, and Pew's, not mine.

Unfortunately I can't find my original comment in this frustrating paginated "letters to the editor" comment arrangement which is not searchable, but I hope I didn't phrase it in a way that suggested this was a matter of opinion.

Given the universal (except for FOX) decline in credibility across all media and across all news outlets, I believe (and this part IS opinion) that something very fundamental must be at play in terms of cause.

People in the party or not?

I am not "in the party". I am an Independent, and have remained so. I could have decided to switch my 'affiliation' to Democrat months before the primary in my state and voted in teh Democratic primary, but I didn't. Why? I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I have issues with both parties. A few decades ago I might have found a home somewhere, but I am that most reviled of all things, a centrist. I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal and I love the fact that the only President in recent years who actually had the cahones to deliver some fiscal sanity - Bill Clinton - is now derided by many in his own party as a traitor.

I have accepted the fact that neither party will deliver anything but more Debt to this country. Neither party will find a way to actually pay for what it wants to do. However, the Republicans will spend and refuse to pay for things I don't want - and blame the Democrats. The Democrats would at least be likely to spend and refuse to pay for things I am more likely to approve of. And they are less likely to appoint Federal Judges like Scalia et al. But, that still doesn't mean I'm a Democrat. I have no home. People like me are reviled by party regulars as, in fact, a Republican, simply because I think we should be able to pay for what we spend. I have no business helping to pick their nominee.