The Media Discover the Poor

"Karl Rove, President Bush's top political advisor and deputy White House chief of staff, spoke at businessman Teddy Forstmann's annual off the record gathering in Aspen, Colorado this weekend. Here is what Rove had to say that the press wasn't allowed to report on.

"On Katrina: The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government . . .

"On The Anti-War Movement: Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally . . .

"On Bush's Low Poll Numbers: We have not been good at explaining the success in Iraq. Polls go up and down and don't mean anything . . .

"On Iraq: There has been a big difference in the region. Iraq will transform the Middle East . . .

"On Judy Miller And Plamegate: Judy Miller is in jail for reasons I don't really understand . . . " Jeff Jarvis makes the perfectly reasonable point that you shouldn't need a printing plant to deserve a prize:

"The Times-Picayune and Nola.com should win a Pulitzer for their journalism, which happened to be distributed online and could not be distributed in print after Katrina, Mark Glaser did a good act of reporting and asked the Pulitzer committee about whether work online could win their prize.

"Now before you read their reply, don't you think their answer should have been: 'Well, sure, if it's great journalism, why should we care whether it's on paperhellip especially these days. We want to encourage great journalism however it happens.' That's what they should have said. Here's what they said, as Glaser reports:

" As for a possible Pulitzer, the board has considered online presentations as part of an entry for the Public Service Award before. In this case, however, it was print journalism posted online with the absence of a print newspaper due to the hurricane damage. Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzers and a journalism professor at Columbia University, told me the Pulitzer board would have to consider any exceptions.

"'As I understand it, the Times-Picayune, at some point, produced a paper as well as online coverage,' Gissler said via e-mail. 'So, in theory, it could submit an entry reflecting both components. Under our rules, it is up to the Board to modify the rules or to make one-time exceptions to the rules. However, I do not want to speculate on what the Board may or may not do in a specific case. It meets again in November, its regular business meeting.'

"Don't you just want to take them by the shoulders and shake hard and shout in their faces: Wake up! Your audience is online and you're not! You're going to die with your audience! You are not serving the public where the public is! You're fiddling with your rules and nobody but you gives a damn!"

Josh Marshall picks up on a tantalizing memo from the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger: