The journalistic malpractice in the press' coverage of the Blagojevich scandal has been pretty unbelievable. As the folks at Media Matters' County Fair have been pointing out for weeks, much of the press has been ahead of the right in looking to draw conclusions and connections between Obama and Blagojevich. Liberals reacted to the criminal complaint against the governor with amusement, in large part because the initial information was exculpatory: Blagojevich is shown being angry that the Obama camp wasn't welcoming any deals, and the lead prosecutor on the case went out of his way to say that neither Obama nor his staff were under investigation.
Yet somehow, through a lot of metaphors involving clouds and shadows and some really irresponsible speculation, the media consensus is that Obama has done something wrong and that it will be (a) covered up or (b) proof that the Administration is corrupt -- especially if no proof of wrongdoing is found, because that just proves the coverup was successful.
Today Eric Boehlert goes after a piece by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, in which Isikoff talks about what he would do if he had subpeona power. An excerpt from Isikoff:
