"Dear Media: This... Is Why Everyone Hates You."

[TboneAgain]

Mollie Hemingway writes for The Federalist, and she probably doesn't even realize that I'm one of her devoted fans.  Be that as it may, Mollie hit one out the park today, contrasting coverage of the Elizabeth Lauten "story" with that given to other actual news stories, such as the discovery of the Jonathan Gruber videos. It's a fairly long piece, and be sure to wear your hip boots, 'cause you'll be literally wading in sacrasm. I loved it!

I wanted to give you a snip, but for some reason the site won't let me copy text from the article. Take a few minutes and enjoy it!

[walkstall]

Mollie Hemingway writes for The Federalist, and she probably doesn't even realize that I'm one of her devoted fans.  Be that as it may, Mollie hit one out the park today, contrasting coverage of the Elizabeth Lauten "story" with that given to other actual news stories, such as the discovery of the Jonathan Gruber videos. It's a fairly long piece, and be sure to wear your hip boots, 'cause you'll be literally wading in sacrasm. I loved it!

I wanted to give you a snip, but for some reason the site won't let me copy text from the article. Take a few minutes and enjoy it!

Hmm...Copy and paste worked for me. 

snip~

There are many wonderful reporters. They work hard to get the story right and provide a valuable service to their readers and viewers. But we have a serious problem — and it's a problem at the editor level at least as much as it's a problem at the reporter level.

snip~

There is a huge liberal bias problem in the media (fun recent graph related to the problem here). Pretending it's not there is not going to make it go away. But pointing out the problems year after year isn't making things better. Some of the media behavior post-election seems more like a toddler temper tantrum than a dispassionate news judgment.


Maybe Baron and his peers can attempt to defend what they did with this story. I would love to hear what they have to say. But if they wonder why journalists continue to be among the least trusted professions, a bit of introspection is in order.

[TboneAgain]

Hmm...Copy and paste worked for me. 

snip~
snip~

You're right. It's not a site issue, it's a browser issue. (I was experimenting.) Here's a good snip:

OK, sure, sure. Yes, the [abortion doctor Kermit] Gosnell story was for years one of the biggest stories in the country for millions of Americans who are pro-life, but let's just assume that "being even vaguely aware of major stories that are interesting and important" isn't something we should judge executive editors on. Yes, it had angles dealing with late-term abortion, partial-birth abortion, infanticide, pharmaceutical rationing, exploitation of immigrants, racism, and abortion clinic regulations, but let's just agree that the Washington Post's struggle to see if any of those things were worth really exploring had nothing whatsoever to do with ideological reasons. Sure.

Now let's turn back to the Lauten story and see if the Washington Post heard about it or covered it at all. [The following are actual Washington Post headlines.]

-- Aide to Tennessee congressman knocks Obama kids
-- The long and fraught history of judging the president's kids
-- White House: First daughters should be off-limits
-- Indigestion over the Obama girls: Why a GOP staffer's below-the-belt jabs were particularly wrong.
-- GOP aide's online dig at Obama daughters creates backlash: A GOP staffer criticized the demeanor of Sasha and Malia Obama at the turkey pardoning.
-- Criticizing first kids? Still not a good idea. The ex-GOP aide who called out the president's kids violated the unspoken staffer code.
-- GOP aide resigns over criticism of Obama daughters
-- When GOP staffer put Obama children 'at a bar,' it continued American tradition of trashing black females' morality: Views like hers historically excused the abuse and disregard of human beings judged not worthy of consideration by people who also prayed.
-- Hill staffer quits after comments about first daughters: Those on both sides of the political aisle believed Elizabeth Lauten broke a cardinal rule when she criticized the Obama girls in a Facebook post.
-- Nothing classy about Elizabeth Lauten's criticism of the Obama girls
-- Hill staffer Elizabeth Lauten resigns after remarks about Obama daughters

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. So for those counting at home, this list includes not one, not two, but three (!) Associated Press reports and another eight articles or posts on the matter by Washington Posties. In four days. And I saved the best one for last.

See, somehow — and I don't know if this was a reporter idea or an editor idea or just a complete breakdown of journalistic prudence on all sides — but somehow the Washington Post took a "foreign affairs" reporter and put him on the investigation of Lauten.

And that's a real thing that happened.