a pitstop in the Gore-ing of John Kerry

Amid all the late night talk show jokes and calls by the Bush aministration to name names,The Boston Globe's Patrick Healy, who quoted Kerry on "foreign leaders," who wanted him to defeat Bush, said 3/15 that "upon review of his tape, he realized that Kerry had in fact" said "more leaders." His reference to "more leaders," said Kerry spokesperson Stephanie Cutter, "could mean anybody." Even Drudge has the full e-mail by Healy on his website.

Question #1 leaps to mind: Why didn't Kerry's people say, no my boss never said that? Why did they let the foriegn leaders quote go on for days and days with GOPers making snide, "I'll bet it was Kim Ill Jung and Chirac" remarks? Number two, boy does Healy has balls or what? He talked to the LA Times about sending out this e-mail and admitting to a mistake by the press and ending a storyline that the press core loved. The press I have decided, are not, in general overly liberal or conservative. They are overwhelmingly lazy. If on the first time they think they hear "foreign leaders" they will stick to it for months. If they get a press release, they will quote it extensively.

Remember the Bush ad that had 9/11 images and the families of survivors who were aghast at George exploiting the attack for his political gains? Turns out, those people were part of a group, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, who's endorsed Dennis J. Kucinich, as pointed out by the Weekly Standard's Continetti. Yet none of the media bothered to mention the group's affilation when airing segments or writing articles. Why? Because they were too busy to look up the numbers of other victims; some liberal group had handed them the numbers and quotes and they ran with it.

Occationally, reporters do amazing jobs of investigative reporting, offering different views that the CW and inside views, but the last year has been partiuclarly void. While their were puffing up Dean, Edwards, and to some extent Clark, they were beating down Kerry, Gephardt, Lieberman, and the unmentionables. Then once they had Dean, Edwards and Clark riding high, they took them apart again. It seems to me that the Bloggosphere does have valuable things to offer, as it offers different spins and stories on what is going on and is not the echo chamber of the press rooms. I am glad that people are tracking particular reporters and keeping them honest, like the Wilgoren Watch, or the Adam Nagaourney watch .

Of course, many of us are dependent on the media for our information and there is the issue of Journalistic Ethics that bloggers tend to dissregard when it doesn't suit their fancy, but on a whole, bloggers offer a needed supplement to the lagging elite, lazy media.

PS Today is the IL primary. And with it comes the quote of the day: "Election Day is an unusual time for the homeless"-- Chicago Sun-Times' Brown, on IL SEN's Blair Hull (D) hiring homeless Election Day workers.