Screaming at Dean

"The journalistic establishment is circling the wagons, of course. Journalists usually blame themselves last and forgive themselves first. They are taking special umbrage at the White House's indignation about Newsweek's iniquity and insisting that this is the pot calling the kettle anti-Muslim. It is certainly true that the Bush administration, at Guantánamo and at Abu Ghraib, is responsible for a good deal of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world. The Bush administration is not perfectly qualified to give lessons in transparency. But, if Scott McClellan should not be allowed to hide behind Michael Isikoff, neither should Michael Isikoff be allowed to hide behind Scott McClellan. The subject this week is not the misdeeds of government. The subject this week is the misdeeds of journalism. No wonder many editors and editorialists want to change the subject.

"'We feel badly': With those insultingly wan words, Whitaker thinks that he has wrapped things up. All of Newsweek's penitential protestations notwithstanding, what emerges from this episode is the image of a profession that is complacent, self-righteous, and hopelessly in love with itself. Is this a terrible generalization? Well, there are 17 people who lost their lives because of the state of journalistic practice at a U.S. magazine. When American journalists do not think of themselves as heroes, they think of themselves as victims; but here they are neither. They are--I mean Isikoff and his editors--simply scavengers."

On the never-ending prison abuse debate, Andrew Sullivan quotes a line from InstaPundit and launches his defense:

" I do confess that I think that winning the war is much more important than Abu Ghraib, and that viewing the entire war -- and the entire American military -- through the prism of Abu Ghraib is as unfair as judging all Muslims by the acts of terrorists.

"This sentence is one I can fully agree with. But one has to ask: where has he been for the past year? Accusations - and convictions - of torture and abuse can be found in literally dozens of detainment facilities, across Afghanistan, in Tikrit, Camp Cropper, Basra, Gitmo, and on and on. Thirty six inmates have died under interrogation. No cases of abuse were found in any detention facilities that were not geared toward interrogation. Abu Ghraib is therefore one smidgen of the problem, hyped because of highly selective visuals. . . .

"Glenn [Glenn Reynolds, who is InstaPundit] has one sub-clause in his rejoinder that even says: 'when Andrew was a champion of the war on terror.' Excuse me? My careful, fully documented criticisms of the U.S. treatment of detainees have been made not because I am anti-war or anti-military. They are because I am pro-war and pro-military. Does Glenn really believe for a second that idiotic tactics like brandishing fake menstrual blood or Stars of David at Muslim inmates are good interrogation practices? Does he think these excrescences have helped gain any useful intelligence in any way? The problem with these abuses is that they are evil and stupid; immoral and counter-productive, as so many experts in interrogation will testify. All of this is the gift to bin Laden that keeps on giving. But it wasn't Newsweek who gave him the gift. It was this administration. And, indirectly, those who shill for it."

The press loves to draw huge lessons from single elections, but Joel Kotkin urges caution from L.A.:

"It would be a vast overstatement to ascribe national implications to Villaraigosa's victory. There is little reason to believe that he symbolizes the future of Latino politics at the national level; and even in Los Angeles, the lessons that it is possible to draw from yesterday's election are tempered by the circumstances surrounding this particular race--namely, the incumbent mayor's extreme unpopularity. All of which is to say that Democrats, ever hopeful that Latinos will someday save them from political exile, should not read too much into Villaraigosa's win.

"Villaraigosa, beloved as he is in the parlor left circles in Hollywood and the city's west side, did not run as either a labor or left-wing candidate. Instead, he ran a remarkably tepid, amorphous campaign, presenting himself as a candidate who could unify Los Angeles. . . .

"Unlike African-Americans, who tend to vote solidly Democratic, Latino voters break down into a number of subgroups--some of which tend to be very liberal, while others tend to be far more conservative. This should be obvious to anyone who followed last year's presidential election in which George W. Bush received roughly 40 percent of the Latino vote."

An interesting debate here about journalism, with Atrios saying reporters should wise up:

"What they seem to fail to understand is that they spent the last dozen or so years accommodating and encouraging a bunch of people whose goal it is to effectively wipe them out. Reap, sow, yada yada. As many others have pointed out, while criticism from the left (which they ignore) is about making them better, the right is pretty much out to destroy any media in this country that doesn't exist for the sole purpose of encouraging tax cuts, demonizing gay people, and generally supporting the agenda of Dear Leader."

But Kevin Drum raises a red flag:

"Here's the deal. Newspapers have been slowly dying for a long time. . . . That's a real problem, because newspapers are the only consistent source of real reporting we have. In fact, you can narrow it down further: the only sources of serious, day-to-day reporting left in the United States are the major national dailies: the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, and a couple of others with big reporting staffs.

"But here's what the public hears about newspapers from the blogosphere:

"From the right: newspapers suck because they're too liberal.

"From the left: newspapers suck because they're craven apologists for the Bush administration.

"We can kid ourselves all we want that our toughlove approach to media criticism is aimed only at 'making them better,' but that's not what the public hears. They hear a group of squabbling teenagers who both agree that newspapers suck. So they tune out. And all that's left is network news with its 90-second 'in-depth' segments, 20/20 and A Current Affair, talk radio, and blogs.

"Now, Atrios is correct that the right is out to destroy the media -- especially the major national dailies, which set the tone for so much other coverage because they're the ones with serious reporting capabilities. This has been a key goal of theirs for decades, and conservative bloggers are merely their latest foot soldiers. And why not? 80% of the most popular political blogs are conservative, so media bashing is a twofer: it eliminates an enemy and simultaneously promotes a medium that's dominated by conservatives.

"Given all this, liberals should think very hard before joining the media bashing crusade too eagerly."

I would disagree. Maybe not with the "bashing" part; we could all with a little less he's-evil-and-should-die criticism. And I'd like to see newspapers restore some of their good name. But if folks on the left are just as motivated to object to media coverage as their counterparts on the right, so be it. I think it's healthy for MSM types to have to engage their critics of all stripes and show readers they're not remote and arrogant and defensive.

Finally, Media Bistro nails the puffiest bio among the hordes of Huffington Post contributors:

"After working as an actress, designing a line of women's clothes and running her own public relations company in her native London, Kathryn moved to Los Angeles in 1986. Within six weeks of her arrival she met and married Saturday Night Live filmmaker, Gary Weis. Together with Weis, she produced over thirty music videos in less than three years for performers such as Paul Simon, The Bangles, Foreigner and George Harrison. With the arrival of her three boys, Oscar, Otis and Louis, Kathryn put producing on hold and put her energy into making homes for her family. Her farmhouse in Southern France and her Spanish-style house in Santa Monica both depict her now signature style - a charmed life split between an English manor and French farmhouse. The ambient charm of these design influences have been infused with California cool, producing a casual magic that inspired friends Steve Martin, David Mamet, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lady Annabel Goldsmith to commission Kathryn to recreate the same style for their homes."

It goes on. And on.