Jamison Foser, over at Media Matters, reminds us that it’s the media, non-smart person…

He writes…

The defining issue of our time is not the Iraq war. It is not the “global war on terror.” It is not our inability (or unwillingness) to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care. Nor is it immigration, outsourcing, or growing income inequity. It is not education, it is not global warming, and it is not Social Security.

The defining issue of our time is the media.

The dominant political force of our time is not Karl Rove or the Christian Right or Bill Clinton. It is not the ruthlessness or the tactical and strategic superiority of the Republicans, and it is not your favorite theory about what is wrong with the Democrats.

The dominant political force of our time is the media.

After veering into the less sexy world of education issues, Bob Somerby has trained his Daily Howler guns back on politics lately. Of course, he’s also been raising the hackels of many a progressive blogger for his recent rebukes of the leading lights of the lefty blogosphere.

Like this from today…

YGLESIAS SUMMARIZED: My career, as a smart young liberal writer, will probably run through the pages of Slate. Therefore, it might not be prudent to note the fact Slate’s editor just posted the stupidest piece of “analysis” ever written—an “analysis” which promotes a Standard Script about fake, phony Dems and a Standard Script about Bush’s great honesty. If I know what’s good for Number One, I may have to downplay this problem.

But, with Al Gore back in the news, he’s reclaiming his rightful place as the blogfather of media watchdogs.

Today, Somerby writes about this Tom Toles cartoon…

At least three things should be said about this cartoon, which is so long overdue:

First, no news org has been more at fault than the Washington Post in creating and pushing the “narrative” Toles mocks. (Here at THE HOWLER, we’ve been discussing this matter since March 1999.) For that reason, it’s especially rich to see this cartoon at the top of the Post editorial pages. It was on those pages that the late Michael Kelly was allowed tp publish his “Farmer Al” column, a column which kicked off the War Against Gore—and which captured, for all the world to see, the modern press corps’ astounding dishonesty. And it was on the pages of the Washington Post that Ceci Connolly toyed with the truth for two years—making a joke of Election 2000, and sending George Bush to the White House. When it comes to the “narrative” Toles mocks today, no news org disgraced itself as much as the Post. This cartoon could be improved in only one way—if the Uncle Sam figure had a sign which said “Dissembling Post” on his chest.

Second, you’ve read about this problem here—but elsewhere, you’ve largely seen it ignored. In particular, career liberal writers have generally chosen to avoid discussing the conduct Toles mocks. Somehow, Toles—a cartoonist—understands what has happened, but your fiery career liberal writers just don’t. May they burn in a place with extreme global warming for the horrible thing they have done.

Third, we’ll suggest that you savor an irony here; we’ll suggest that you savor the way the DC elite has slunk away from its greatest narrative about Gore and the truth. For the past seven years, they pushed a great theme: “Al Gore has a problem with the truth!” They said it over and over and over—and they kept inventing “lies” by Gore to convince you that their story was accurate. But have you noticed a funny thing in the recent coverage of Gore? That long-running “narrative” has now been abandoned! It has been replaced by a new Standard Script: Al Gore was controlled by his campaign advisers! He should have talked about warming more! We’ll examine the sheer inanity of this new Standard Narrative in our series about Frank Rich (starts tomorrow). But isn’t it funny? For years, they insisted that Gore had a problem with the truth. Now, they don’t mention this great claim at all. What is the most inconvenient truth? The fact that this ugly tale about Gore was, from the start, just made up.

The question I really want to answer for myself during this election season in Vermont is to what extent does Vermont political reporting suffer from these same problems.

At Green Mountain Daily, odum’s on a similar quest I think. In a post titled “Vermont’s Own Tony Snow?“, he discusses the Hall Monitor report about Rutland Herald reporter Brendan McKenna’s new gig as communications director for Martha Rainville.

Odum writes…

What qualifies Brendan McKenna to be the press mouthpiece for the general? How about his promotional piece touting her “strong stance” for the troops? Or this one, explaining how “Rainville has made it her duty to understand the frustrations, hopes and fears of Vermont National Guard soldiers serving in Iraq” (penned in December and January respectively — long after Rainville had decided her “duty” was actually to run for US Congress while exploiting the National Guard by “unofficially” running her campaign and refusing to step down honorably — no mention of that little detail in either piece, of course).