Media Criticism

I have to make a confession before I go off on this brief diatribe against the partisan blogosphere: I am left of center. You may have been able to read between the lives of my previous posts but I have been a liberal for most of my politically active life. I volunteered for Senator Russ Feingold in 1998 as a high school senior, ran a College Democrats chapter in college and have worked on behalf of liberal candidates the last two elections. Having said this, I find certain crassness in the way that my fellow liberals are approaching the Larry Craig scandal.

This description was in today’s New York Times political blog:
In his first public appearance since the news broke on Monday about his airport-restroom arrest on lewd conduct charges, Senator Larry Craig offered up extraordinary public remarks in which he continued to assert that he’d done nothing “inappropriate�? and said that he regretted his guilty plea in the case.

Mr. Craig, the Idaho Republican, was joined by his wife Suzanne as he spoke in Boise. He asserted that he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct (paid a $500 fine, had a 10-day jail sentence stayed pending a one-year-probationary period), “in hopes of making it go away.�?

The comments indicated below this story were certainly enough to have my stomach churning. Republicans and Democrats were fighting alike over the issue of taking advantage of legal issues to advance a political agenda. The problem is that scandals have rocked both parties at one time and another with Republicans encountering a load of problems in the last four years (Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Mark Foley, etc.) while Democrats have Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Neither side has the upper hand in the moral court.

I was curious about opinions in blogs like DailyKos which I have occasionally read and debated with activists about the Democratic agenda. DailyKos is obviously a player in the new media world but the combination of user blogs and activist rhetoric makes it less than desirable for people who do not enjoy reading stories trying to bury people while they are down. I reviewed 430 comments under the DailyKos entry on Craig’s apology and I felt the drool of my fellow liberals oozing through the screen. The feeding frenzy is on and liberals sense blood in the water for 2008.

Larry Craig is a scoundrel and contradicts himself when he says he is family values oriented but engages in actions bad enough for him to plead guilty. I think Democrats are going back to the Swift Boat incident that helped sink John Kerry’s 2004 campaign as a guide of what not to do. DailyKos and other websites are trying to play the role of moral crusaders when Democrats have a checkered legal past of their own. I am yearning for a third party and press alternatives that are focused on running the country and portraying the news. Right now, each party is trying to position themselves as the least reprehensible option which makes 2008 a nightmare instead of a dream.