On the politics beat in Wednesday's Washington Post: first, don't ever let them tell you that liberal reporters don't want to be stenographers to power. They don't mind writing news stories that read like a press release...if they're about Hillary Clinton. Political reporter Dan Balz writes up the junior senator from New York's speech on the economy in Chicago without a single critic, just Mayor Richard Daley welcoming the hometown girl "whatever office you are in." Hillary's speech had shades of Old-Style Liberalism in it: "America did not build the greatest economy in the world because we had rich people," she said, "We built the greatest economy in the world because we built the American middle class." She also insisted tax cuts were not "the cure-all for everything that ails the American economy." Balz couldn't note she tends to hate tax cuts...just like liberal reporters.
Second, don't ever let them tell you that reporters are content on reporting what happened yesterday when they'd just as easily tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. Jonathan Weisman gets out the crystal ball for the story "Immigration Bill Fallout May Hurt House GOP." Is that "news"? Or wishful thinking?
The Washington Post pollsters (scroll down to question 18) found in their April 6-9 poll that 75 percent of those they poll feel disagreed with the notion that America is "doing enough" to curtail illegal immigration. (Other polls show Americans think illegal immigration is out of control.) But even as that number was noted in yesterday's pro-rally news stories, it was not highlighted in their graphics: they highlighted instead that a majority favor some form of compromise with cheating border-crossers. Notice that the Post never reported those poll findings in their own news story with their own headline, making it hard for newspaper readers and online scrollers to locate.
Still woozy from the pro-illegal-immigration rallies, Weisman warned that only the Republicans, not the Democrats, need to worry:
Sensenbrenner's bill is getting attention now, not so much from Republican-base voters but from Spanish-language radio shows and Latino activists who have made it the focus of marches that have drawn more than a million protesters. One sign on the Mall Monday read "Sense, not Sensenbrenner."
