Missing the Boat

"It certainly doesn't hurt," says Paul Steiger, the Wall Street Journal's former top editor, who is running the operation. "Most everyone I talked to about it in the abstract said, 'Bring it on.' That's in the abstract. It will come down to a specific story."

The board includes New York Times Managing Editor Jill Abramson, Boston Globe Editor Martin Baron, Denver Post Editor Gregory Moore, Seattle Times Editor David Boardman, and Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Others include U.S. News & World Report editor at large David Gergen, former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll, Fortune columnist Allan Sloan and historian Robert Caro.

ProPublica is in the process of hiring 25 journalists -- Steiger has already gotten 850 r¿sum¿s -- to do what he calls "the deep-dive stuff." Much of its $10 million annual budget has been donated by Herbert and Marion Sandler, former owners of a California savings and loanand Herbert Sandler chairs the board of directors. They have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic Party campaigns.

Steiger says ProPublica will fill a void left by cutbacks in the newspaper business that have reduced investigative staffs. He says that he may offer some of his stories exclusively to one newspaper or television show and that, thanks to his sizable budget, "we don't have to ask for any money in return."

Furthermore . . .

Bloggers seem divided over the David Shuster controversy, with Digby wondering why he criticized Chelsea in the first place:

"I take him at his word that he didn't mean it in any literal sense. But what did he mean? Why on earth would anyone think it was 'unseemly' for the 28 year old daughter of a presidential candidate to be 'calling celebrities and superdelegates' on behalf of the campaign? What's wrong with that? . . .

"I do think it behooves all of us to be skeptical of news organizations that behave like adolescents, no matter where your political allegiances lie."

Ann Althouse, meanwhile, wonders what the big fuss is about:

"Really, how bad is it to say 'pimped out'? Is it 'nappy-headed hos' bad? Did anyone think Shuster was literally calling Chelsea a whore or even making any reference to her womanly virtue? 'Pimped out' is a common colloquialism these days. According to the Urban Dictionary, which gives a good read on how young people use words, the connotations having to do with exaggerated fashion and style predominate. Even if the clear associations with prostitution remain, we often make figurative references to prostitution in speech, and the cause of feminism is not served by requiring special limitations when we're talking about women. We ought to be able to call a female publicity hound a 'media whore.' "

Obama winning yesterday's Maine caucuses is a very big deal -- not because of the 24 delegates, but because after his Saturday trifecta in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, Maine was the one state that many pundits thought Hillary would take. Combine that with the media's favorite story -- a shakeup! -- and she's got some rough coverage ahead.

Andrew Sullivan sees the Obama train pulling out:

"In not-so-great weather, a huge turnout delivered a another huge margin of victory to Obama. The message is clear and its volume is increasing. The more Democrats look closely at their two candidates, the more the insurgent begins to look like the inevitable.