Paul Waldman performs an autopsy on the media reaction to last week’s debate and finds a cancer within:
Brooks' justification of the ABC personalities' shark-jumping performance was emblematic of the press' self-conception, the exaltation of the passive voice. “Issues” like flag pins “will be important.” And how will this happen? From whence will this importance come? Will the heavens open, trumpets blare and God himself command in a booming voice that reporters shall write about flag pins, no matter what their better natures and their obligations to the public might dictate?
Of course not. Reporters will choose to write about flag pins. They will choose to write about whether some catastrophic, heretofore hidden character flaw has been revealed by a comment a candidate made, or by a comment somebody who knows the candidate made.. They are not merely conduits for the campaign’s discourse, they create the campaign’s discourse, as much as the candidates themselves. …
To many in the press corps, Obama is just naive for characterizeing things like flag pins, the patriotism of his former pastor, and subversive activities committed 40 years ago by a guy he sort of knows as “distractions.” When he noted that the debate was nearly half over before an actual policy issue was mentioned, they were dismissive.. Appearing on MSNBC the next day, Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle said with a mocking tone, “It seems like he wants to live in this sort of perfect, high-minded political world where things like flag pins don't matter, but they really do. These things create perceptions. Everyone is saying he didn't do well. I have to agree. I don't think he did much for himself at all.” The “everyone” to whom she was referring was no doubt the rest of the political reporters.
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--The Editors
