I’m a fan of Glenn Greenwald, whose blog is now over at Salon.com. Although perhaps not terse and punchy enough for most attention spans, the guy has a sharp, discerning mind.
And boy is he upset today. The clip he includes of Chris Matthews, a relentless TV presence capable of reducing any topic to the ying and yang of Democrats vs. Republicans — (after all, adversarial confrontations drive cable talk and ratings) — is at first glance utterly routine. It is the same kind of clubby chatter we’ve all watched a thousand times. Which is why Greenwald’s dissection of it is so spot on.
One of my beefs with the mindset of “objective” reporting is that I’m so often left wondering if anything really matters to those who practice it, and where fundamental truth rates in the criteria of a good story. Is everything really reduced to someone’s horse race? Liberals vs. conservatives? NBC vs. ABC? New York Times vs. Washington Post?
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