Alex Pareene's Super Hack List: Politico, The Washington Post, Newsweek
http://www.alternet.org/media/alex-pareenes-super-hack-list-politico-washington-post-newsweek
1. Politico
Surprise! Its Politico.
I have written tens of thousands of words on what, precisely, is wrong with Politico. But I can put the case much more simply here: Its Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei.
VandeHei is the co-founder of Politico, and Allen is the organizations biggest star. Each morning Allen collects a bunch of links to day-old news stories and emails them to thousands of people, and for this he is paid a fortune. VandeHei is the guy who gives Politico its obnoxious, pseudo-macho ethos, with the shouty memos and nonsense about metabolism. Allen exemplifies the sort of political journalist who thinks his job is faithfully reporting what mendacious professional liars tell him, while also usually protecting their identities. VandeHei thinks neutrality requires occupying a space precisely between Breitbart and the Huffington Post. Neither would probably understand if you tried to explain to them that supporting whatever any CEO says or effectively endorsing Erskine Bowles for president is actually a violation of political neutrality.
***SNIP
2. The Washington Post
***SNIP
The Washington Post has the worst opinion section of any major newspaper in the country. Its actually baffling to me how bad it is. It doesnt seem that difficult to simply not publish a bunch of liars, hacks and incredibly boring old men, but the Post cant seem to figure it out.