The Special Report panel notes Michael Malone’s article on media bias in the presidential campaign, but they miss the important question. The panel pondered the long-lasting impact on the media, but I would have preferred they discuss the long-lasting impact impact on the country, considering the fact that Obama’s first 100 days (not to mention the next 1,361) certainly won’t receive proper scrutiny.
Perhaps Obama will be like the first days of the Clinton administration and overreach to an extent that even adoring reporters won’t be able to ignore. But, considering the new low the media’s reached during this campaign, we shouldn’t dismiss their willingness to look the other way.
Update: Right after I finished this post I flipped over to Turner Classic Movies and found the Billy Wilder classic Ace in the Hole, with Kirk Douglas as a sleazy down-and-out reporter who manipulates a cave-in for his own benefit, with tragic results.
The best line in the movie is when he tells his editor he’s “lied to men wearing belts, he’s lied to men wearing suspenders, but he’d never lie to a man wearing a belt and suspenders.”
