Poor Carl Bernstein: he's suffering a bad bout of MSM nostalgia. He longs for the good old media days when the news was dominated by the likes of the New York Times, the Washington Post and the then three broadcast networks. They could slam Republicans with impunity, without any conservative media counterweight.
In covering the shutdown, today's media culture, kvetches Carl, is just too darn fair and balanced in its treatment of those lying, McCarthyite Republicans. That's why President Obama and the congressional Dems' poll numbers are surprisingly bad. Such was Carl's complaint on today's Morning Joe. View the video after the jump.
Watch Bernstein yearn for days of yore when pesky things like Fox News, talk radio and the conservative internets weren't around.
CARL BERNSTEIN: We're also at a great cultural moment right here. Great political, pivotal moment in our history. I compared it last week here to McCarthy, Joe McCarthy, McCarthyism. This is about the Republican party and what it's going to be. Is it going to conduct a fact-based, philosophical argument in our political system or is it going to be a nihilistic, hateful, asymmetrical in terms of facts and the truth part of the party, as in Joe McCarthy. This is about media as well. These poll numbers are about a totally different media culture than we've had in the past. And as you see in that clip from Comedy Central, we need to start covering this story not 50/50, this much on this side, that on the other. We need to cover it factually. Because there are facts here that will show what this event is about. And where, in fact, is this anger, hatred of Obama coming from? What is the root of this?
