I do believe this fairly sums up much of the current state of affairs. Last month Washington Post ran an article in the opinion section titled:
Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem. We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.
It is a very interesting read and is the thesis of a book written by the same authors of the Op-Ed article.
Last week, Greg Sargent made an astute observation with regard to media and the fallout from the article.
He writes:
It turns out neither man has been invited on to the Sunday shows even once to discuss this thesis. As Bob Somerby and Kevin Drum note, these are among the most quoted people in Washington — yet suddenly this latest topic is too hot for the talkers, or not deemed relevant at all.
“Not a single one of the Sunday shows has indicated an interest, and I do find it curious,” Ornstein told me, adding that the Op ed had well over 200,000 Facebook recommends and has been viral for weeks. “This is a level of attention for a book that we haven’t received before. You would think it would attract some attention from the Sunday shows.’
“The piece focused on press culpability — it would be hard to find a more sensitive issue for the media than the question of whether they’re doing their job,” Ornstein said. “We got tons of emails from some of the biggest reporters in the business, saying, `We’ve raised this in the newsroom, and editors just brush it aside.’”
Ornstein, while stressing that he wasn’t casting any blame, noted that the topic hasn’t come up on Howard Kurtz’s weekend media show
An amazing piece that hundreds of thousand of people read, and not a peep of it being discussed on television. Not even Howard Kurtz, host of
CNN's Reliable Sources, which describes the show as
"Now more than ever, the press is a part of every story it covers. And CNN's "Reliable Sources" is one of television's only regular programs to examine how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover. Host Howard Kurtz, Washington Bureau Chief of The Daily Beast, is the nation's premier media critic, and each week he questions print reporters, television correspondents and Internet bloggers about how the press is covering the major stories of the week." This is proof to me that yes, we
can blame them both, the Republicans in office for obstructing the work for the people of this nation and our
fourth estate, the media, for failing to honestly report the news -- especially when the news is about their tendency to say both sides are to blame. The media loves a circus, and the GOP is more than happy to provide it. Republicans are not the same as Democrats, in spite of what some people will tell you. For all the railing against the mainstream media, it appears that the most radical among us (left and right
<<< see what I did there?) have fallen for this meme that they are the same. I would say it's more than fair to declare that nothing is getting done in Washington-- at least not as much as could be done, but the reasons
why have far more complicit participants. It's really a sad joke on those (myself included many times) that claim to be part of voice representing either side of the aisle. The media - which we need to have to inform us all - is failing us at the very root level: It refuses to take reflection on itself.
As I wrote on Monday, it appears that if it bleeds, it leads. In this case, a clarion call was made to those that are creating the problem. The people who are supposed to further discuss this have gone completely silent. Is this a purposeful bloodletting by omission? What happens when there is no more blood left?
As thus, I believe that Mike Lukovich nailed the problem today.
and
Raine
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