Pirate's Cove

Joe Klein at Time magazine is proving once again that the media really is ensconsed in their own Arugula laced fish tank. He has a screed up, which comes pretty darned close to mirroring the talking points emails I receive from the Barry campaign. About the only difference is Joe doesn’t ask me to donate or sign up to receive Time magazine.

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign’s war against the press. This has been building for some time. Those of us who have criticized the candidate–and especially those of us who enjoyed good relations with McCain in the past–have been subject to off-the-record browbeating and attempted bullying all year.

Well, gee, Joe, could it have something to do with the fawning coverage of Barry Obama, portraying him as the modern day Messiah, with few hard questions asked, little hard research asked, and few hard core political journalism stories written, as opposed to all sorts of negative personal stories about McCain, such as when y’all were just wondering if he had an affair, whether he is actually a US citizen, whether his cancer could come back, etc and so on.

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.” The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

In other words, Joe hopes that the Credentialed Media continues their personal, massive, one side smear attacks on Sarah Palin, because that is what the article is about. Notice there is no context or depth on any of those allegations, they are simply the same as the TPs the DNC and Barry put out.

Early in the Joe’s short screed, he talks about “McCain refused to an interview with Larry King, for God’s sake, because Campbell Brown had been caught in the commission of journalism on CNN the night before..” Is it the commission of journalism for supposed hard news journalists to go after Palin personally and her family personally? To repeat Nutroots stories that baby Trig might actually be her daughters, that she was a member of the Alaska Independence Party, etc. You have heard them all, I am sure. What does her husbands DUI from over 20 years ago have to do with anything? Woopee. I know quite a few good people who have had one, and we know quite a few people who have done much worse. They sure do not like to mention Ted Kennedy leaving Mary Jo to drown, Bob Byrd’s time as a KKK recruiter, or, how about Barry’s admitted drug use 20 plus years ago. Where is the actual journalism, Joe?

Anyhow, this is also a stealth attack on us, the conservative blogosphere. But, if anyone actually reads Time anymore besides some of us in the blogosphere, they will see right thru the whine of Joe Klein, and realize that he is just making excuses for acting like celebrity rag filth mongers.

Take for example what a journalist such as Joe tells us: that Palin supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. Did Journalist Joe happen to mention that she was for it when the costs were low, but thought that $400 million dollars was out of control? Or, how about that Barack Obama voted for the Bridge to Nowhere on multiple occasions? I missed that. Joe Klein might as well be writing Andrew Sullivan’s milky load posts, such as the one where he live blogged it (no, no links for Excitable Andy.)

And, I don’t think that we even have to get in to the massive sexism that the Journalists have delved in to, do I?