Now I understand that this was nothing as benign as the moral lapse in judgement that I had been willing to accept. Now I recognize it is a pattern of misbehavior so shocking in its depth that all or journalism must pay for his decision to call what he has been doing, “journalism”.

I as said, just a guess.

But let’s get back to Woodward for a moment. I know he is arguing that his new “Deep Throat” is only helping him gather material for another book on Bush but when is it the duty of reporters to keep material secret. I thought confidentiality was necessary to get sources to talk about matters that the public needed to know. Now we are told the info itself is off the record? When did reporters become priests or shrinks?

Here is what this story tells us. The Washington media elite now forms a part of the Government. They take handouts and release what their masters in power want them too. They do this in order to maintain their access to the Great and the Good. And they treat the public as ignorantsrubes who must be carefully spoonfed the truth so as not to be unduly agitated.

Is it any wonder that more and more people don’t trust what they read or see or hear? That I now feel that I have to read the WaPo or the NYT the way Soviet citizens had to read PRAVDA or ISVESTIA? And what does the First Amendment mean? A blanket excuse from any responsibility on the part of journalists to carry the line of the day?

Yeah, I’m a purist Marc. Go off and play with the PJ, excuse me “Open Source ™” crowd. I’m sure Glenn and Mikey Ledeen won’t ever carry water and I’m sure Jill will let you alone. But I am concerned that, more and more, REAL journalism - the kind that is celebrated in GOOD NIGHT and GOOD LUCK is, well “Quaint.”

It’s funny how some of these journalists have seen themselves as not just the guardians of public discourse but it’s owners and masters. If they deem it outside the realm of conversation then it must be so. Woodword, unless there are some exonerating revelations, seems to have fallen prey to that mentality.

Interesting, GM, if you substitute “right” for “left”, you will get just the view I have of the MSM. Funny how differently two people can see the world.

Well, I think there are several obvious problems with the attitude above, number one being that “the press” is, though hardly monolithic, certainly in sync with the left, despite the best efforts of lefty self-serving ideologues to keep it from being portrayed as such.

From the Seattle Times:

Text of Bob Woodward’s Statement

On Monday, November 14, I testified under oat…

Scooter’s in a whole heap o trouble. It’s only a nonissue for the selective amnesiacs who wistfully wish for that to be true. It isn’t.

That is to say, he is a patsy used freely by Establishment shills. The story is what they say it is. He volunteers his opinion that the actions of Libby and Rove are innocuous because he wants to please them. Also, if they are discredited, he’ll have to break in a new crop of senior administration officials.

Actually more stupid than having the Rockettes or whatever celebrating the launch of this ad bundling venture as something innovative are, as noted on a previous thread, the absurd protestations by Simon & Johnson that they eschew “labels”. This is patent bullshit from guys who haven’t even learned to do their own little tap dance very well. They’re giving “disingenuous” a bad name.