Were You Wrong If The Press Doesn't Think So?

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Now we have all noted that too many of the personalities on cable TV and to many of the pundits on the opinion pages were members or cheer leaders for the failed Bush/Cheney administration.  We have also noted that many of the old Republican/Conservative guard is not real happy with the current crop of wingnuts that make up what is now known as the Republican party. One member of that old guard is Bruce Bartlett.  Now I agree with Bartlett on virtually nothing - but for all his other short commings he is at least sane.  He had a piece over at The Daily Beast the other day, The GOP's Misplaced Rage:

In January, the Congressional Budget Office projected a deficit this year of $1.2 trillion before Obama took office, with no estimate for actions he might take. To a large extent, the CBO�s estimate simply represented the $482 billion deficit projected by the Bush administration in last summer�s budget review, plus the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, which George W. Bush rammed through Congress in September over strenuous conservative objections. Thus the vast bulk of this year�s currently estimated $1.8 trillion deficit was determined by Bush�s policies, not Obama�s.

I think conservative anger is misplaced. To a large extent, Obama is only cleaning up messes created by Bush. This is not to say Obama hasn�t made mistakes himself, but even they can be blamed on Bush insofar as Bush�s incompetence led to the election of a Democrat. If he had done half as good a job as most Republicans have talked themselves into believing he did, McCain would have won easily.

But on Saturday Steve Benen published an email he received from Bartlett:

I believe that political parties should do penance for their mistakes and just losing power is not enough. Part of that involves understanding why those mistakes were made and how to prevent them from happening again. Republicans, however, have done no penance. They just pretend that they did nothing wrong. But until they do penance they don't deserve any credibility and should be ignored until they do. That's what my attacks on Bush are all about. I want Republicans to admit they were wrong about him, accept blame for his mistakes, and take some meaningful action to keep them from happening again. Bush should be treated as a pariah, as Richard Nixon was for many years until he rebuilt his credibility by more or less coming clean about Watergate with David Frost and writing a number of thoughtful books.

One reason this isn't happening is because the media don't treat Republicans as if they are discredited. On the contrary, they often seem to be treated as if they have more credibility than the administration. Just look at the silly issue of death panels. The media should have laughed it out the window, ridiculed it or at least ignored it once it was determined that there was no basis to the charge. Instead, those making the most outlandish charges are treated with deference and respect, while those that actually have credibility on the subject are treated as equals at best and often with deep skepticism, as if they are the ones with an ax to grind.

I am truly baffled by this situation, as I'm sure you are.

I am truly baffled that Bruce Bartlett is baffled that "the media don't treat Republicans as if they are discredited. On the contrary, they often seem to be treated as if they have more credibility than the administration". There is little actual news media anymore. We have tabloid journalism - town halls with loud and crazy protesters make for better TV than constructive ones.  We don't have news anchors anymore - we have millionaire talking heads that go to the same country clubs and cocktail parties as the people they are supposed to be reporting on.