Do Many Political Reporters Not Have Brains?

Do Many Political Reporters Not Have Brains?
by Barry Yourgrau | Nov 13 2007


So Ron Brownstein, the longtime (now former) LA Times political beat reporter, has a new book out about our "polarized" American political scene: The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America.

Ours is the age of "hyperpartisanship"--left as well as right, as Brownstein sees it, according to the reviews (Sunday and today) in the NY Times.

Ain't it awful?

I don't mean to knee-jerk here, but what is so brain-numbingly tedious --so thrashing-about-bug-eyed-with-fury demoralizing--is the fatuousness of Brownstein's analysis. It is an analysis which I'm sure is widely regarded as "thoughtful." Which shows just how not up to the job our Big Media press by and large is.

Brownstein seems incapable of registering the reality of American politics: That the "partisanship" and "principles" of the right are turning this country from fairly working democracy into a looting shooting tyranny (oh do I have to fill in the details?).

The reality of the current Republican party is that it is...radical. But Brownstein--and he has such dismally large company--seems to be arguing that if you call out Bush and co out on this, you are one rabid "hyperpartisan" dog.

The question I always want to ask these people of Brownstein's ilk is: What would they have said in Germany or Italy during the rise of fascism? Would you have called anti-fascists "hyperpartisans?" I'm just wondering.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11003

the humungous vacuum of Candy Crowley
has blackened out all light and independent thought.

Where can we trade these flaks in for real journalists?

millenium?

I remember when she was on Bill Maher, and she wasn't NEARLY as offenisve with her personal views, as she is with her professional ones.

In a way, I feel sad for her - I get the sense that she went to the corporate darkside because she wasn't secure about her other attributes (i.e. her weight) in a very superficial line-of-work.

want to have a wake or something for poor poor brownstein and his pathetic laments.

It's disingenous, propoganda bullshit and I could read that the moment I saw the name, "brownstein". Oh yeah, he's got a rep.

calling him the best in the biz. :eyes:

Poor man, he used to be a Dem, long ago.:(

wild EYED tweety. :crazy:

...on the Repugs! :rofl: Oh, the irony!

Brownstein is a hack, and not a very good one.:thumbsdown:

They're jerk offs that didn't have the sociopathic tendencies to make it through the world of advertising and marketing. So they picked up a pen and coined not-so-clever catch phrases and pseudo-words when discussing the political realm of the United States. They for some reason want to view GWB and the neo-cons as "normal" conservitaves while conservitaves around America and the world look on in absolute horror. He is uninteentionally correct about one thing though: we might be headed for a second civil war. The moneyed interest wants to make sure they'll win this time so they close Northern military bases and move them to the South so when the Bush Crime Family finally crosses the Rubicon, so to speak, Dixie will have the upper hand and kill the Republic once and for all.

While I agree that there is bias and some vehemence on the left without question, I hate when I hear someone say something like "Al Franken is the Ann Coulter of the left" or similar. Can they really not tell the difference, all politics aside? When I hear Rush, Ann, Bill, Gibson, and the others on the right, they always spew hatred and contempt for everyone, and cannot go five minutes without a serious insult.