I hope she's right

Libby Spencer, writing at AOTP. I hope she's right:

As the estrangement grew, it took on a tone of subtle mockery but in the last week or so, we’ve seen an open hostility take root. The title of this post is a quote from Lily Tomlin that I found at the Politico this morning. Ben Smith, formerly a dependable purveyor of the campaign’s talking points, links to Roger Simon who delivered some prime snark in a piece today ‘apologizing’ for practicing journalism. He asks for forgiveness saying, “It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.”

And Roger is not the only one. In the last week, we’ve witnessed Campbell Brown’s evisceration of Tucker Bounds that scared McCain out of an interview with Larry King. Joe Klein begged his colleagues to “stand strong in this case” and expose the false talking points on Palin. Even the AP, a new GOP stalwart under Ron Fournier, sent out two pieces this week, debunking the McCain campaign spin. And yesterday’s moment of unguarded candor between Mike Murphy, Peggy Noonan and Chuck Todd speaks for itself. The elite media are ready to get off the bus.

The Republicans made their intentions clear last night. They intend to resurrect the same old wedge politics and reignite the culture war. They have no platform to stand on and will try to frame the race around personality instead of issues. Up until now that has been a successful strategy only because the media was on board. But without the media’s amplification, their empty rhetoric won’t reach beyond the far right echo chamber to snare the voting blocks they need in order to have a prayer of winning.

One can only hope that the current breakup continues and ends in divorce rather than reconcilliation. The future of our country depends on it.

We're dealing with a completely ruthless and shameless foe. I've seen the speech, you know what, Palin looks great when she lies. It's absolutely critical that the media step up to the plate, and you know, actually do their jobs and expose her lies. The left blogisphere can do it's part to help focusing their attacks like a laser beam on certified falsehoods and scandals.

It's funny. I read both left-wing and right-wing blogs and the utter depth of of the belief on both sides that the MSM is completely in the pocket of the other sides is astonishing. Especially on the right-wing side. Of course, both things can't be true. The easy thing to do is to say that we're right and they're wrong and deluded. But that would be the easy and lazy thing to do. I think the truth is no matter how completely even-handed the press is, the left and the right will still hold those views.

Reporters respond to incentives just like everybody else. I believe that sometimes coverage is biased in the Republicans' favor because they are better at working the refs. However, when a reporter such as Campbell Brown ask tough questions and looks good doing it, I'm sure that will encourage other reporters to do the same. I'm hopeful.

Excuse me while I go and give some money to Obama.