up with the reality. The media has been stuck in an old paradigm. The reason comedians seem to be telling the best story this year is because they alone are trained to tell the "meta-story"-to step outside and name the discrepancies between the word and the deed. The media in the past several weeks--since the 2nd debate--seem to be adapting and learning to tell the meta-story. Sorry for the length of this. I see what you mean about no short answers! sbw, could you offer some examples of questions, or phrasings of questions, that might result in as perverse an effect on Kerry supporters as you think the PIPA survey did on Bush supporters, or could you rephrase the PIPA questions in a way that you think wouldn't have produced that effect? The unsurprising consensus is that the coverage sucks, and the narrative ends plaintively: " The larger question in many ways is why, if these concerns are raised campaign after campaign, the press seems unable to address or correct them. " I agree with sbw that the PIPA survey and the "reality-based community" paradigm don't really belong in your list, although my reasons are very different from his. I think the web and blogging have altered the center of gravity in journalism in a couple of ways. One is that as an institution, journalism is amnesiac; it doesn't hold on to memories much longer than the hero in Memento , and it's much less interested than he was in