The shame of America's free press

Over at The Carpetbagger Report, Steve Benen tackles "the new media narrative" -- you know, the one where "Bush and the GOP have momentum and are on the upswing," the one being pushed in such lofty journalistic bastions as The Washington Post.

Steve looks at a number of issues -- Zarqawi, Plamegate, Iraq, Busby, Treasury, and the GOP agenda -- and concludes that "the recent events that have the GOP so excited aren't indicative of a party — or an agenda — on the comeback trail".

And he's absolutely right. Zarqawi's death was real, but the rest is spin. In fact, even the post-Zarqawi narrative is spin. Don't you remember Chief of Staff John Bolten's six-month campaign to resurrect the Bush presidency and Republican electoral fortunes? Aside from tough talk on Iran and immigration and trickle-down gifts to Wall Street and the wealthy, it was all about "happy talk".

Well, count the press courted. The "happy talk," the optimistic spin, has found its way into the way the press tells the story of the Bush presidency and the Republican Party.

Forget the liberal press. The accurate adjective is gullible. It wants a story, any story, preferably a new story. Apparently, the story of Bush's demise and Republican collapse is old. Apparently, the White House got out the spin and the spin is preferable to the truth. Much easier to regurgitate "happy talk" than to do the hard journalistic work of investigation and analysis. Much easier to let yourself be manipulated by the powers-that-be than to do your job properly and effectively.

Shame. Shame on America's allegedly free press.