My friend Rob Humenik at Get Donkey! is a volunteer on the Dean campaign. He recently had the opportunity to ride along with some of the press corps covering the Dean rally in Houston. It’s well worth reading:
What was most interesting was hearing them interact with each other. I always had this silly stereotype of journalists trying to scoop each other and keeping their information to themselves, but these guys were the definition of pack journalism. What was scary was that a lot of them didn’t really seem to know what they were talking about regarding some of Dean’s policy stances, things he said at the speech, etc. I got the distinct impression that they were interviewing each other for information (instead of, say, the official campaign spokesman that was in the front seat). Honest to Pete, I heard one reporter ask another “How do you think Dean is doing,” and the other went on to answer how he felt Dean probably wrapped up the nomination when he decided against campaign financing, but the test will be if his appeal extends beyond the base of radical liberal supporters…” The exchange was followed by the sound of fingers typing on keyboard.
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Katherine 12.11.03 at 8:21 pm
I left journalism for law school because of stuff like this and I am now prouder of my chosen profession. Which is sick. I tend to give reporters the benefit of the doubt because I know how much a bad editor can rein you in, but there is no excuse for this sort of thing.
I’ve never really thought that the press was conservative, aside from the obvious Murdoch outlets. I do think they’re bad in a way that rewards both dishonesty and extremism, and I think the GOP is much better at those things than the Democrats. If it’s going to be “Democrats say X, Republicans say Y, truth probably somewhere in the middle, now for some shallow psychoanalysis of the candidates and then back to the Peterson case,” no matter what the facts or the weight of expert opinion or anything else–what’s the point of being moderate or truthful?
Jeffrey Kramer 12.12.03 at 2:06 am
Most regulars here probably know the site already, but if you don’t — and you want to get really, really depressed about the ignorance, the laziness, the self-satisfied sanctimony of the ‘celebrity press corps’ — look through the archives of Bob Somerby’s “Daily Howler” [www.dailyhowler.com]
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