Michael Calderone reveals a common phenomenon among journalists: sometimes you catch more flies with honey, and sometimes a positive story is your way to into the good graces of sources. Props to Calderone for including himself in the indictment:
Even those covering those who cover an administration aren't immune to the temptation — see, for example, this reporter's January profile of incoming network correspondents, “Meet the (new) press.”
Ahem. For my part, I don't see these kinds of articles as too pernicious if they stick to the facts; they generally do reveal something interesting about the people behind the scenes and will provide more access for important stories down the road. The real problem with political journalism is that a lot of the typical work is all personality and profile, no policy. Sometimes you want to ask political journalists if they'd like some beat with their sweetener.
-- Tim Fernholz
