The truth is non-partisan

I have always heard that the news media get their news from each
other. The local editor opens the New York Times to learn what the
day's headlines will be.

An interesting turn on this is to watch how the news media cover each
other. It used to be that the newsman was a neutral observer, but in
today's world of television coverage the news person is now a
celebrity.

And Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times perpetuates that
celebrity status. Recently, she wrote about Chris Matthews (MSNBC)
coverage of the Iowa caucus.

"Mr. Matthews sat in dark suit and white shirt in a New York studio,
against a presidential-like backdrop of waving American flags, and
sounded off like a superenergized ESPN commentator revving up for a
bowl game kickoff."

Although he is "hardly neutral," she writes, "his chief passion is process."

"He seems pushily, happily obsessed with the art and science of
politics and political drama."

This is unlike other cable commentators like Lou Dobbs of CNN who she
derides. Because his comments don't fit Stanley's viewpoint, he is a
"not always representative opinion-shaper." Of course, her viewpoint
and Chris Matthew's are representative, right?

She laments: "Viewers choose these days from a dizzyingly vast array
of television news personalities. There are not just the few trusted
network or cable anchors and the panelists and political reporters
recruited from newspapers, magazines and Web sites but also the roving
video savants: citizen journalists who deluge the Internet with their
own videocasts and blogs and who are given ever more voice on sites
like YouTube."

"In all that noise, cable-news talk shows function as a kind of couch
potato caucus, a gathering of self-selected, not always representative
opinion-shapers who push forward the media consensus. Emboldened by
Fox News, cable hosts are freer than ever to hawk their own opinions;
Lou Dobbs of CNN has turned into the William Jennings Bryan of the
immigration debate, a nut about border crossings instead of a cross of
gold."

So, who makes these anchors, panelists and reporters celebrities? You
do, Alessandra Stanley.

It's seems the news media has nothing better to do then to comment
about each other.

See the Stanley's New York Times column at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/politics/04watch.html?_r=1&oref=slogin