Some of the comments at least were reassuring.

It's theoretically possible to sympathize with the situation the NYT and other major media find themselves in. Imagine you're a small town reporter with two prominent citizens running for mayor, each very popular and respected. Now imagine one of those guys is just lying and spouting off crazy BS all the time in his campaign and any time you try and report it, an avalanche of bitching from that candidate and his supporters gets dropped on you and your employer and nobody else in town really comes to your defense.

Now, it's not actually possible to sympathize because we're not talking about a small town reporter but the motherlovin' New York Times.

Mike

You're right, armies of partisan mouth-breathers shriek about "bias" and "fairness" the moment you call bullshit on their favorites.

This is true at the local level and the national level.

It's an uncomfortable situation for the guy calling bullshit.

But -- that's the job.

"A profession is a performance for public good. That's why newspaper work is a profession" - Humphrey Bogart, from Deadline USA

"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
- Atticus Finch, from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Exactly!

The problem with Washington, too many reporters and too many politicians whose top priority is keeping their jobs, not doing their jobs.

I won't name names, because I know this fellow personally and he's always been pleasant to me.

But I see a front-page story today by a Washington correspondent -- an "exclusive" -- hand-fed to him by a member of Congress whom he covers as part of his beat. It's a very flattering story about how the member of Congress, a bold champion of All Things Good, is about to embark on a bold mission for Good Things.

Several times, the correspondent says "exclusive interview" in his copy.

As it happens, I've written a bit about this member of Congress, and he does not give me "exclusives" about himself, and I'm pretty sure I know why. And I'm OK with that.

I would make a poor editor. Because if I were an editor and my Washington correspondent came to me and boasted that he had an "exclusive" from a member of Congress about what a swell guy that member of Congress was, I might ask sharply what stories we had missed in order to get such items fed to us.

Are you talking about that puff piece about Giffords? Uh er I mean, Areway ouyay alkingtay aboutway atthay uffpay iecepay aboutway Iffordsgay?

The Arizona congresswoman who got shot?

No. C'mon, I'm not going to begrudge her some positive profiles for a while. She got shot in the frickin' head.

Sorry, It did strike me a bit cold, but in my defense I just saw that story a few minutes before I saw your post, and I remembered their prominent use of the word "mission," so it was fresh in my mind.

Has Rush and the lot made a big deal about Obama signing off on NDAA and SOPA?

Rush criticizes Obama for throwing a halloween party for kids?

Palin criticizes Obama for the white house christmas card not being christmas-y enough?

Then there was an issue because he didn't wear a flag pin.

Bizarro world complaints.

@Joe Lee
awesome quote by Atticus Finch. One of my favorite fictional heroes.