White House Press Corps: Not Corrupt, Just Incompetent

This is what the White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow, said today at a press briefing: There have been some in the Democratic Party who have argued against the Patriot Act, against the terror surveillance program, against Guantanamo. In other words, there are some people who say that we shouldn't fight the war, we should not detain -- we shouldn't apprehend al Qaeda, we shouldn't detain al Qaeda, we shouldn't question al Qaeda, and we shouldn't listen to al Qaeda. In other words, they're all for winning the war on terror, but they're all against -- they're against providing the tools for winning that war.

Now, here what's incredible: Not one White House reporter asked Snow to name a Democrat who has said that we shouldn't fight the war on terror, or question al-Qaeda, or try and listen to al-Qaeda. Not one reporter thought to ask that simple question. Not one.

Now, if a reporter had asked such a question, then maybe Snow would have tried to wiggle out of the implication he was making by saying that those parts of his comments don't refer to Democrats, but at least he should have been made to spell it out. Instead what he did was use the word "Democrats" when talking about opposition to the Patriot Act, to warrantless surveillance, and to Guantanamo. After doing that, he then makes the leap that being against those things is being against the war on terror, and the reporters present let him get away with it. It is up to reporters to challenge that kind of stuff. It is a simple thing to do, and yet no one did it.

Time and time again Democrats argue that the media is dominated by corporations who are loyal to Bush's economic agenda and that is why reporters don't call him and his underlings on this stuff. Well, there is another explanation: they just aren't that good at doing their job.
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