February 20, 2005

Hopeless and Hopelesser

I forced myself to read today's column by Mr. Insufferable himself, the New York Times's Frank Rich.

It's a meandering rehash of the Jeff Gannon story, out of which Rich would have us believe the White House is so busy creating fake news that it's become impenetrable to journalism.

Frank then ends with an aside about how heinous the Gannon affair is compared to the resignation (Rich: "banishment") of Eason Jordan, whom Rich doesn't even defend (Jordan was "behaving foolishly at a bloviation conference in Switzerland"). Gannon didn't accuse American soldiers of murder; he just threw George Bush some softballs. Big deal.

What's inconsistent for Frank is that he doesn't criticize the lefty blogosphere for the "Gannon was a gay whore" meme. If a Republican invoked the same meme against a reporter, real or fake, Rich would be all over him like a pit bull on a postman. There used to be a proverb, something about oxen being gored.

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