Monday, September 12, 2005

Why the MSM Is "Looking the Other Way"

A gentle reader on a mission to the Left Coast sends a link to John Leo's marvelously informative summary of l'affaire Sheehan, detailing how the MSM has ignored the long-term political extremism and more recent crackpot statements of Ms. Absolute Moral Authority.

Why does the MSM continue to get caught with its pants down like this? SWNID argues that it is trapped by (a) its need for a story while holed up in Crawford, Texas in the middle of August; (b) its predominant political proclivities; and (c) its ongoing refusal to admit that there are alternative media (conservative columnists, radio, Fox News and bloggers) who will call them on it.

So it goes like this:

Help! I need a story!

Cindy Sheehan could give me one.

To make it a good story, I'll have to leave out the part that she's a nut.

That's OK, because she's a useful nut. She's on the correct side of the issue.

And no one will ever know that we left the nutty stuff out.

We are The Media! Hooray for the First Amendment and the Columbia University Journalism School!

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