Media Mania

Reflecting on a NYTimes piece, News Coverage Changes, and So Does Tone of the Campaign, which observes the change in tone by the media after the recent mocking SNL skit that suggested that the press has given Obama more favorable coverage than Clinton, see And Then There Were More and The Last Great Debate, the New Republic's The Plank, Media weenies, queries:

Seriously? Can this possibly be true? I fear it is, and it makes me wonder why journalists are such pathetic dogs. Scold us, and we immediately go into a shame-faced crouch, start lashing ourselves like medieval monks, and become desperate to win back your approval. You are absolutely right: we were too soft on Bush in 2000; we got suckered into backing the Iraq war; we fixate on the horse-race aspects of elections instead of delivering you hours and hours and pages and pages of insightful policy analysis; every last one of us is a card-caring liberal; we care nothing for the truth and will repeat any old rumor that comes down the pipeline without regard to whether there's any reason to believe it's true; and, given our druthers, we would print nothing but naked pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, preferably wrestling one another in a pit of chocolate pudding. For all this and much, much more, we are so very very sorry. Just please stop being mean to us. We'll do anything. Seriously. We only want to be loved.

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Forget snuggling up to Obama. If the media can't take some gentle late-night ribbing without going all to pieces, that is the real embarrassment.

I'm afraid the press has a severe case of "it's all about me" syndrome.

Anyway, if you want to look at the real love affair -- look at the media's treatment of McCain. The Obama love fest was just a Spring Fling. It'll be over in the fall (if he wins the nomination) when it comes down to Obama - McCain. Trust me.

(Via Crooks and Liars)