NP: The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers

Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post is bylined as a "media critic," but he doesn't really criticize all that much. More of a "media beat writer." Chris Lehmann of CQ would make a much better media critic with comments like these:

Imagine if you were covering the baseball playoffs and you wrote that there was massive speculation about who was going to win. It’s manifestly moronic because you’re writing about a scheduled event that is going to take place on a known timeline. You’re contributing nothing. It’s the opposite of news; any useful public information is entirely missing. But that’s the way the press bubble operates. Not only do reporters write about what they’re talking about, but they’re writing about each other. Notice the passive construction in these stories about “rampant speculation” and ask yourself, “Who’s doing the speculating?” It’s the reporters who are; most voters, being sane people, might think about it for a second but then they move on to the next thing in their day.

I was interviewed on-camera once by our local Chicago news back when Clinton was testifying in the Lewinsky case, and said something similar. We've got all these reporters standing outside the White House talking about how we have no idea what happened inside. How do you feel about that? I feel it's not a story until you know that something actually happened. Needless to say, I didn't make the evening news.

Anyway, add Lehmann to the list of newer journalists who have me hopeful for the future, along with Ana Marie Cox (to whom he happens to be married), Michael Scherer, Nate Silver, and maybe even Chuck Todd at NBC. I should maybe keep a list of these folks somewhere.