Covering Kitty

Nick Confessore may be a bit more generous to the mainstream media on this than many liberal bloggers are inclined to be.  After seeing the shameless way our sad excuse for a press corps helped the Republicans promote the dishonest, sleazy claims of the Swift Boat Liars for Bush, it's hard to avoid taking a little guilty pleasure in seeing Bush embarassed by the same media pathology, at least for a moment.

Right now, though, I'm with Confessore on this: How to Cover Kitty Kelley's Book TAPPED 09/08/04.  He makes some good points about the fact that the book is published by Random House.  That is a reputable publisher, although he reminds us that even the most quality publishers are "laissez-faire about fact-checking" compared to journalists.  And given how obviously sloppy mainstream journalists have become about fact-checking in a case like the Swift Boat Liars, that's a real reminder of the need for critical reading and thinking.

In the process, he notes that the publisher of the Swift Boat Liars' book on Kerry is Regnery Publishing, "essentially a partisan press with a well-documented history of publishing salacious and fraudulent books about Democrats and liberals."  And even that may be a tad generous to Regnery's level of quality.  Regnery is our guy Chuckie's publisher, as well.

All that said, however, I'm really disappointed in the eagerness with which reputable news organizations are preparing to give Kelley prime-time interviews to air her allegations. She doesn't deserve the presumption of credibility. Kelley's past books have included tidbits that were vigorously challenged by the subjects and other news organizations. She's a known purveyor of gossip. One of her sources on the drug allegations, Sharon Bush, has every incentive to manufacture stories about the president, since the president's brother Neil Bush cheated on her with prostitutes and then divorced her.

On the whole, what's happening with Kelley is very similar to what happened with the Swift Boat liars. She is being given air time and column inches in which to air explosive accusations that the news organizations have been unable to independently verify. It's not enough to challenge her during interviews and ask tough questions. When the accusations are this serious, even broaching them permanently damages the subject and leaves viewers and readers with a sense that there must be some truth to them -- why else would the press be covering it?

But we also know that the mainstream press isn't going to reform their lazy, trivia-obssessed, scandal-driven ways overnight.  So it's hard to resist making a point that our American press corps is much more willing to flog baseless accusations against Bush's opponents and critics than they are to analyze what Bush is doing.  Which is what Hesiod does with some bitter irony in this 09/07/04 post.  So does Atrios, though without much of the irony part.

The press' generally irresonponsible role in helping the administration hype the invasion of Iraq is the most disgusting example of their recent failures.  And it's a real reminder that the press falling down on its role in a democracy can have consequences that go far beyond a party's fortunes in a particular election.

Tom Tomorrow also gives a clever characterization of Regnery Publishing's standards of quality in The Republican Conventioneer's Guide to New York City 08/31/04.