NewsCommonsense

Great Stenography, Roz

"I don't believe someone should be forced to buy something they don't want to," said Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, a Democrat who represents rural Russell County. "It's un-American. And it might be unconstitutional."

One of The Post’s better stenographers used this quote in her story this morning about the Virginia Senate voting to make it illegal to force people to buy health insurance.  It apparently never occurred to Roz Helderman as she was scribbling the quote to ask, “What about auto insurance?”

See, that would require her to think.  But when your job is to get what one side says and then the other side’s perspective and voila, you have a story, there’s no need to dig a little deeper, especially when you know your editors will be pleased as punch at another article with no context nor journalistic thoughtfulness.

Ignorant Americans

Here’s a poll that tells us basically, if you’re polling Americans on public policy issues, you might as well save your money.  American don’t know the basics. 

So will media outlets now stop promoting polls?  Yeah, I don’t think so either.

TV News Formula

Here’s a look at how TV news stories are put together…with a wink.

Thanks to Political Wire.

Hitting Back

You can’t really tell much by this clip, but I’ve got to hand it to Sen. Judd Gregg. 

He may not be right on the issues.  He may be off-base on this particular exchange.  But I wish more politicians would take it to journalists when they think the question is unfair, the premise unfounded, or the question just stupid.

I would have loved to hear then Sen. Obama, responding to George Stuff-a-sock-in-his-puss’s question about whether he loved America more than Rev. Wright, say, “What an idiotic question!”

Manufacturing Controversy

Alas, we’ve come to expect that the mark of journalism today is whether it can find stories that have the three C’s:  Currency, Celebrity, and Controversy.

We’ve heard the stories that Ben Bernanke was in trouble.  There were stories that he might not be confirmed.  So when I saw this headline,

Fed chief Bernanke wins 2nd term in closest vote

By JEANNINE AVERSA and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writers

I was wondering who the one or two Senators were who put him over the top.

WASHINGTON – Embattled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won confirmation for a second term Thursday, but only by the closest vote ever for the crucial post and after withering criticism from lawmakers for bailing out Wall Street while other Americans suffered in recession.

The Senate confirmed Bernanke for a new four-year term by a 70-30 vote, a seemingly solid majority but 14 votes worse than the closest previous vote for a Fed chairman.

No, AP, it wasn’t a “seemingly solid majority”; it was a solid majority.  It was a landslide, a mandate, even if it was closet vote ever for the post, especially in this poisoned partisan environment.