Ground Game

How often do you see bloggers correctly telling the traditional media to get ahold of themselves?

But Ezra Klein does just that, and calls the mainstream press to task for its “white-hot hatred” of Mitt Romney:

Romney's jobs rhetoric is stupid. But it's a common campaign lie, and one the press never, ever rebels against. They hate Romney, though, and so he's getting an uncommon level of scrutiny.

Specifically, Klein is referencing this video showing AP reporter Glen Johnson hounding Romney on whether the lobbyists “run” his campaign.

You won't often find this blog defending the semantic parsings of a candidate for elective office, but in this case, Romney’s balancing act of having lobbyists involved in his campaign is a fair distinction from Johnson’s emotionally charged accusation of said lobbyists “running” Romney’s effort.

After this story broke yesterday, I was speaking with someone who works for the McCain campaign. This individual, much like their boss, has little but contempt for Romney, but stood up for him in this case, noting Johnson was known for being similarly confrontational and bordering on unprofessional during the 2004 campaign.

I’m not out on the campaign trail, so I can’t speak directly to the quality of work being done by the press corps. But maybe if they called out false statements on an individual basis instead of waiting for explosive outbursts like Johnson’s, the public would be better served. After all, isn’t a single “lie” one lie too many?