Getting Tougher

The establishment media have rediscovered the virtues of acting as an aggressive check on the government.

There is, after all, a Democratic president about to take office.

NBC Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker said that reporters have not been aggressive enough during Obama's post-election pressers.

"Our job is to hold him to account," Whitaker said, adding that he thinks "we're going to have to get tougher."

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter followed up: "We need the Sam Donaldsons of the world."

Mr. Whitaker's sense of outrage over dodged questions would have been welcome during the runup to the invasion of Iraq, the implementation of the Bush torture regime, and administration's campaign of mendacity regarding warrantless surveillance, to name just a few genuine scandals that might have benefitted from the attention of a "tough" press.

But if it takes Obama's reluctance to indulge reporters in yet another round of questions about his non-involvement in the Blagojevich scandal to raise the ire of NBC, well... better late than never, I suppose.

But Mr. Whitaker will need to bring the new host of Meet the Press up to speed sooner rather than later. David Gregory doesn't even think it is his job to hold public officials accountable for the the things they say and do.

I think there‘s a lot of critics—and I guess we can count Scott McClellan as one—who thinks that, if we did not debate the president, debate the policy in our role as journalists, if we did not stand up and say, this is bogus, and you‘re a liar, and why are you doing this, that we didn‘t do our job. And I respectfully disagree. It‘s not our role.

Does this mean the Obama administration can expect a free ride on Meet the Press for the next four years?

I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it.

Brokaw cites non-existent poll results out of "fairness" to McCain

Meet the Press host Tom Brokaw cited non-existent poll results to assert that a majority of Americans think John McCain is better-equipped than Barack Obama to be commander in chief.

[I]n fairness to everybody here, I’m just going to end on one note and that is that we continue to poll on who is best equipped to be Commander in Chief, John McCain continues to lead in that category, despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC/WSJ poll.

I was watching when Brokaw said this and wondered what he was talking about. I knew that the latest polls all had Barack Obama tied with or ahead of McCain on the question of who voters support for president. In the latest NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll to which Brokaw refers Obama beats McCain on that question 46%-45%.

So I assumed that Brokaw was parsing some question on which respondents were asked who they felt was stronger on foreign policy or defense issues. It turns that the poll contains no such question.

In fact, there are only two questions that refer to military issues, and they do not prove that Americans think McCain would make the better commander in chief of the U.S. military.

Question 13 asks respondents about their priorities

I'm going to mention four sets of issues. Please tell me which ONE of the following sets of issues is most important to you in deciding for whom you will vote in the presidential election. +

Set A: Economic issues including job losses, home foreclosures, and energy prices.
Set B: Social issues related to moral values including gay rights, guns rights, and sex education for young children.
Set C: Domestic issues including health care, education, and the environment.
Set D: Foreign policy issues including Iraq, Russia, and the war on terrorism.

Set A/economic issues most important ... 57 [177]
Set B/social issues most important ... 10
Set C/domestic issues most important ... 17
Set D/foreign policy issues most important ... 15
Not sure ... 1

As a priority for voters, Foreign policy (including Iraq, Russia, and the war on terrorism) comes in third ahead of only the traditional conservative wedge issues of gays, guns, and sex ed. More people cite the economy as a priority than the other three categories combined.

Question 23 asks respondents to compare Obama and McCain on a range of issues.

On the only military-related question, "The Situation in Iraq," McCain beats Obama 47%-38%. Whatever "The Situation in Iraq" means, the poll's respondents clearly feel more comfortable with John McCain.

But it is an extreme stretch to conclude that this means more Americans think McCain would make the better commander in chief. And even if you are willing to make that extrapolation, Brokaw didn't get the numbers right. McCain enjoys a nine-point lead on the Iraq question. Brokaw, reading from a sheet of paper on his desk, gave McCain a fictional 11-point lead, citing a figure of 53%-42% on the non-existent question of who Americans prefer to be commander in chief.

RedLasso shuts down service to bloggers

RedLasso, which has offered a search-and-clip video sharing service to bloggers, will no longer do so. The site will continue to act as a clipping service for paying clients who wish to track video content, but copyright infringement lawsuits by NBC and FOX "News" have forced it to shutter the free service that lets bloggers create clips and post them to their websites.

"We are very disappointed in the actions of select networks," said Redlasso Chief Executive Ken Hayward in a statement. "We believe we have always acted within the law and have been respectful of the networks' rights."

He added, "They have forced our hand and are denying the blogging community access to the Redlasso platform that beneficially tracks the usage of newsworthy clips across the Web."

Hayward said Redlasso will continue discussions with all content providers during the suspension.

Although Redlasso hired former CBS Corp CEO Michael Jordan earlier this year to help smooth relations with the media industry, television networks have complained that the company violated copyright laws by running unauthorized clips and full-length programs of shows including "The Tonight Show" and "The Fox Report with Shepard Smith."