by Harold Pollack

This month's Atlantic has a great James Fallows analysis of campaign debates. Buried deep is a compilation prepared by Sidney Blumenthal and Daniel Freifeld for the Clinton campaign, in which they examined reporters’ questions in 15 debates. As they summarize it:

352 QUESTIONS
29 GOTCHA QUESTIONS
33 PUFF QUESTIONS
7 GOVERNANCE QUESTIONS
NOT A SINGLE QUESTION ABOUT A FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OR AGENCY AND ITS CONDITION UNDER BUSH

That list is a stunning indictment of Brian Williams, Charles Gibson, the late Tim Russert, and others. It’s also old news to anyone who follows American politics or American government....