Brad Delong picked up an exchange on ABC's This Week where Paul Krugman desperately tried to change the subject from the departure of the White House social secretary to something that mattered, and this is how Sam Donaldson and Elizabeth Vargas responded:
KRUGMAN: Can I say that 20 million Americans unemployed, the fact that we're worrying about the status of the White House social secretary...
VARGAS: It's our light way to end, Paul.
DONALDSON: Paul, welcome to Washington.
I mean Donaldson's right. Focusing on something cosmetic and irrelevant at the expense of policy matters that actually affect people's lives is standard practice for many in the Beltway press. I just can't explain, for the life of me, why a journalist would be enforcing that status quo, accepting it as an unalterable contingency of our political conversation. It's not like it's something he has no power over.
-- A. Serwer
