Hugh Hewitt's column in the Weekly Standard is manifesting a problem developing in the blogoshere right now. Fresh off its victory in the Rathergate scandal, the blogoshere is going a bit over the top on what it thinks is "news." I am sorry, Hugh, but John Kerry OD'ing on beta carotene or losing the fight with the bronzer girl is not news. Hugh makes the point:
"[MSM not reporting on Kerry's 'tan'] is doubly indefensible because candidate appearance stories have mattered in presidential debates from Nixon's sweat in 1960 to Gore's pancake in 2000. If Kerry's sudden play for the Great Pumpkin vote isn't gone or made over by tonight, millions of viewers won't get past his appearance to hear what he has to say about his many positions on Iraq because they won't be able to stop laughing."
Okay, Hugh, I am kinda with you, but its not the debates yet. Then he loses me:
"Old media's refusal to note what ordinary Americans are talking about is the latest in a series of stubborn refusals that began with elitist indifference and ideological bent and which are ending in irrelevance."
I just do not feel anyone, MSM or the blogoshere, has a responsibility to note "what ordinary Americans are talking." With all the high crimes and misdemeanors MSM has perpetrated, Kerry's skin tone does not rank high.
Further, note Hugh's ideological leap: Rathergate was about accuracy in what was reported (a sin of commission, if you will), now Hugh is taking MSM to task about a sin of omission.
I am not there. While I think there are plenty of stories MSM misses every day, that is their choice. What I expect from them is to get it right if they choose to report. Right now, that is hard enough.
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