I love how you love me

Eric Boehlert has written a terrific column about the AP's "Ron Fournier problem," here. He does the kind of digging that is so rare both in the MSM and in most of the blogosphere to show why Fournier's suck-up comments to Karl Rove were not evidence of a reporter's mere "breeziness" but of a mindset that is reflected in Fournier's and AP's coverage; one that has the effect of perverting the truth and misleading AP's readers. Boehlert piles up the evidence on this point, but I would like to suggest that the reason it has gone largely unnoticed is that it is par for the course among the so-called "Gang of 500." If you read Mark Halperin's page at Time or the current incarnation of The Note, you will find all kinds of Rovian assumptions about politics underlying the coverage; assumptions that are largely anathema to most... [read full story]