“Hatchet Job� on Dennis Kucinich?
As you may have gathered from reading previous posts, I read the New York Times politics blog The Caucus with a mixture of interest and bemusement. Some of their posts are interesting while others are examples of why the Times is deeply entrenched in institutionalized political moderation. I couldn’t help but notice an article today talking about Rep. Dennis Kucinich and a primary battle he will face next year for his House seat.
The premise of this article is that challenger Rosemary Palmer recently received an endorsement from former Democratic House candidate Paul Hackett, who has had run-ins with Kucinich in the past. All three people involved in this article are anti-war and share similar domestic beliefs. One of the things that upset me about the article was the comments of New York Times readers, including a comment stating that this article was a “hatchet job.�
I agree with the general sentiment that the blog is the perfect place for the Times to highlight lesser-known candidates. It costs nothing to print these articles and people who read the blog are political junkies like me. The Times editorial staff is missing out on an opportunity to write about interesting candidates during one of the most competitive races in recent memory. While I dislike the venom that commentators used toward this article, I think that the Times could do more to provide voters information over the long primary campaign.
However, a “hatchet job� seems like an overstatement. Everything I read in the Times piece seems accurate. Kucinich has been campaigning for president since 2003 and undoubtedly neglects some of his duties in the meantime. The Times has done a good job highlighting the consequences of running for president by a lower tier candidate, namely that they face challenges within their constituency. To the comments that the Times only cares for the major candidates while denigrating the bottom tier, I would say that they are doing a fine job for now on pointing out behind-the-scenes issues for every candidate on the ballot.
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