Journalists Against Accountability

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post about Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen's long history of arguing against accountability for wrongdoing by Republicans.  Greenwald:

Reflecting the vast diversity of our national media, Richard Cohen now joins fellow Washington Post columnists Ruth Marcus, David Ignatius, David Broder and Fred Hiatt -- as well as virtually every other Beltway journalist -- in demanding that Bush officials not be prosecuted even if they committed felonies.   The only political leaders any of them ever want to see pay a price for wrongdoing are those who get caught in titillating sex scandals (Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer) or other fun and tawdry episodes that are easy and entertaining to report (Rod Blagojevich, Duke Cunningham).  Actual abuse of power and the commission of true felonies should be ignored and forgotten when committed by the Serious and powerful leaders of the royal court they serve.  As usual, the most striking aspect of all of it is how unapologetically eager "journalists" -- of all people -- are to argue on behalf of the powerful political leaders over whom they actually still claim to serve as "watchdogs."

I do have to offer a bit of disagreement, however.  The national news media was obsessive in pursuing all manner of (bogus) allegations against Bill Clinton, not only those involving sex.  The media's obsequiousness towards power has, in recent years, been quite a bit more thorough when the power in question is held by Republicans.

In any case, Greenwald's entire post is well worth a read.