Letters to the Editor

Journalists and their good friends in the White House The wall between the government and the establishment media barely even exists in theory any longer. Glenn Greenwald [2008-08-20]

• They really do love R's and hate Dems.

  Glenn: "But I'm far from convinced that during the Clinton administration, we had some aggressive, adversarial press on meaningful policy issues (as opposed to tawdry scandals, where the press was beyond "adversarial")..."

  The one consistent flaw in GG's generally excellent media criticism is his under-valuation of the purely partisan dynamic that drives our discontent. Since the early 90s, Big Media doesn't serve the Government; it serves the Republican Party and follows the scripts provided.

  The reason there was little adversarial press on meaningful policy issues during the Clinton years was that the REPUBLICANS generally were not adversarial about meaningful policy issues in those years. Early in the Clinton Administration, the Republicans pretty much abandoned substantive policy argument in favor of character assassination and feverish scandal-mongering, and the press followed suit. I.e., the press simply did what the Republicans wanted. (Given the popularity of Clinton's mostly centrist policies, the last thing the Republicans wanted was a lot of policy-based argument.)

  There was a major policy debate about health care in Clinton's first term. The Republicans and their allies fiercely opposed Clinton's plan and made many misleading and false claims about it. And those misleading and false claims were (surprise!) disseminated annd repeated uncritically by the press. The Democratic president's (much more truthful) claims? Not so much.

  If Obama wins, adversarial journalism will return with stunning speed and vigor. Just watch.

  -- Gator90
  [Read Gator90's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Wednesday, August 20, 2008 09:21 AM
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