The Capitol Hill photo-op, with its sea of hard hats, looked good on TV for the Bush team and their tax cut. Media outrage over the deception was rare. The flip side of the press corps' often-justified obsession with Clinton administration spin and flimflam seems to be an overly gullible view of the Bush camp. Soft coverage of the new administration extends to policy matters. Consideration of the full Bush plan shows the richest 1 percent getting roughly 40 percent of the cut.
Journalists create confusion by uncritically reporting the artful claims of the administration.
I'm a coach of kid's basketball and Little League teams. Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time. It's probably less intimidation than an instinct toward propping up the ship of state that has prompted news media to legitimize George W. Bush's ascent to power. At the end of February, broadcast networks and newspapers nationwide proclaimed that Bush did win Florida's election after all. Or at best, premature.