Dems are demanding Bush be held accountable, and now we've got him scared (at least for now). Next step: holding the "4th estate" accountable, too. (from: www.isebrand.com )
In the meantime, Eric Alterman has written a fantastic piece in TAP (http://www.prospect.org/print/V15/3/alterman-e.html ) excoriating the media for being lazy and caving into Bush administration intimidation.
He offers 5 suggestions to journalists. I suggest they follow them to spare themselves from Dem-venom in Kerry or Edwards White House world (please, God). The 5 suggestions are:
- Go beyond the "he said, she said" and tell us what you believe to be true and important. [Excerpt] The chief convention of most news reporting--this side says this, that side says that--needs a drastic rethink. In the age of spin, an age brought to new lows by this White House, a formula that requires giving equal weight to both sides ends up helping the side that's lying.
- Challenge the master narrative with investigative reporting. [Excerpt] the Washington media have given this administration an almost total pass. Even the one criminal probe into the administration, the Valerie Plame-leak investigation, was...leaked to The Washington Post by a disgruntled administration official and only became a full-blown story after the Department of Justice announced its investigation.
- Show proportionality in covering controversies. [Excerpt] The New York Times'...published a front-page article examining Kerry's...contributions from special interests...."Mr. Kerry denounces President Bush for catering to the rich, but he has depended more heavily on affluent donors than the other leading Democrats..." [Yet it] would have taken the [authors] about 90 seconds to go to a Web site every political journalist knows and discover that in fact, Bush has received 28 times more money in PAC donations than Kerry has.
- A little solidarity on behalf of the truth, please. [Excerpt] our greatest media institutions are accepting conditions that every undergraduate journalism student in the country is taught to reject. Individual reporters...can't change this on their own. It's up to their bosses and owners.
- Don't let non-news organs drive the news cycle. [Excerpt] A lot of things get "reported" on shows like Hardball with Chris Matthews and The O'Reilly Factor, and by people like Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh, that are, to be more than generous, not exactly nailed down. The fact that they are "out there," as an MSNBC producer once said...is not a reason for journalists to put their own names and that of their news organizations behind them. Journalists need to ask themselves not only whether a story is true but whether it's significant. Is it somehow more important that John Kerry may have gotten a Botox shot when the nation's deficit is shooting out of control and Iraq is proving not only unmanageable but...to have never been threatening?