Welcome to the “Some Criticize” era of journalism

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

Well, at least the WashPost, in its write-up of anti-ACORN/SEIU talking points today, managed to reference some actual members of Congress in an attempt to back up its headline:

Some Criticize SEIU for Its ACORN Connections

As I noted last week, the standards have changed within the Beltway press corps since Obama took office. In the past it used to be that when leaders from the party out of power had a (partisan) beef with the White House and were willing to spend some political capital to make a stink, the Beltway press maybe paid attention.

Today, with the GOP increasingly irrelevant and the right-wing media, and specifically Fox News, taking over as the Opposition Party, other journalists are now taking their cues in terms of partisan news from radio talk show hosts and cable TV hosts. It's unprecedented.

In today's “Some Criticize” era, all White House opponents have to do (regardless of who they are or what power they hold) is criticize Obama and the press corps snaps to attention and starts typing up the list of grievances. So today we have the Post furthering Fox News' attempted guilt-by-association with regards to ACORN and labor power SEIU, but the Post pretends it's really the GOP that's leading the charge:

Last week, Republican Reps. Mark Steven Kirk and Peter Roskam of Illinois and Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina urged the Census Bureau to stop allowing the SEIU to help recruit workers for its 2010 head count.

This utterly mundane partisan request suddenly qualifies as news in a Post article that's virtually barren of any actual revelations about ACORN or SEIU? Again, it's really Fox News and the GOP Noise Machine that are criticizing the “connections” between ACORN and SEIU, and it's the Post presenting that hodge-podge as news.

Better yet, the Post seeks out a semi-professional SEIU basher for an SEIU-bashing quote [emphasis added]:

“If there are piles of money being spent and you have a bureaucratic apparatus that's not really accountable to its members, then you have all the nice bases for corruption,” Benson said. “Whether that's the case here, I really can't say.”

Ha! Corruption might be rampant at SEIU, but Benson “really can't say.”

UPDATED: Benson's “I really can't say” quote appears to have been (properly) edited out of the Post piece online. It appeared in the original version, as seen here.