The Political Chase

Washington Post’s ‘Journalism’ Under Fire

Wow! The New York Times has jumped in the melee that has been created by the despicable reporting the Washington Post does, and more specifically about the Post’s front-page smearing of Barack Obama on November 29. I’ve never seen the Times report on the integrity of the Post or vice-versa. And the Post deserves every bit of the criticism that is being thrown at them.

The Post’s journalistic standards are worse than reprehensible. I recently wrote a scathing post about Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, when he did a major hit job on John Edwards. It had to be one of the harshest things I’ve ever written. Apparently, there are others who don’t hold the Post’s quality of journalism in high regard either.

The piece on Obama was uncalled for, to put it mildly. But it’s become the standard for the Post. Columnist serving hit men and women. The Columbia Journalism Review said the article “may be the single worst campaign ’08 piece to appear in any American newspaper so far this election cycle.” And things really took off when Chris Daly, a Boston University journalism professor, slammed the Post and Perry Bacon, the author of the Obama hit job, in his blog.

“Since when does The Post assign 27-year-olds to write Page 1 presidential campaign pieces?," wrote Mr. Daly, who is 53 and had written for The Post as a freelance regional correspondent for eight years starting in 1989. “This is fast-tracking with a vengeance.”

And it’s turned into a cat fight since. I mentioned the hit job they did on Obama in my smackdown of Dana Milbank.

The Post has some good reporters, but most of them have been there awhile and have been forced to take a back seat to the somewhat younger staff that serve as hit men and women rather than reporters and journalists. Walter Pincus, a tenured reporter at the Post, talked about this very issue on Bill Moyer’s Journal last week.

When the Columbia Journalism Review makes a statement like they did, and the criticism rises to the level where the Times publishes a story about it, it’s well past time for the Post to do a little reflection and contemplation. Being slapped by the Columbia Journalism Review, is like being slapped by your mother.