The Daily Howler Calls Out Josh Marshall / TPM

[NashVegas]

http://dailyhowler.com/

STEPFORDIZATION NEARING COMPLETION: Then there’s Josh, saying this (without explanation) about ABC’s report on Jeremiah Wright. The Stepfordization continues:

MARSHALL (3/13/08): If Obama's the nominee, we will see no end of this kind of stuff. And there's probably some small benefit of getting a preview. But the simple fact is that we wouldn't be seeing this stuff now if it weren't for the fact that this is the kind of campaign Hillary Clinton's campaign has decided to wage—often directly and at other times indirectly by not reining it in in her supporters when it crops up on its own. Wright is news today because Ferraro's been news yesterday.

For starters, this is largely nonsense. It was always fairly obvious that Wright would become some sort of “issue” at some point—and it’s far from clear that this takes us outside normal standards for reporting on presidential candidates. This was part of what we cited when we said Obama’s downside (potentially major) was the possibility that he could get “Dukakised.” (Clinton’s downside, clearly major: The fact that the press corps loathes her.) That said, on what basis does Josh assert that ABC’s report had something to do with “the kind of campaign” Clinton has run? The most troubling part of Josh’s report is the fact that he doesn’t feel he has to bother trying to tell you. You’re being treated like total rubes when a writer descends to this point.

“Wright is news today because Ferraro's been news yesterday?” Josh has been almost thoroughly Stepfordized. Indeed , you know the process is nearing completion when a site can’t wait to roll its eyes at the specter of yet two more debates! In Pennsylvania and North Carolina, many voters will want to see those debates. But at the Times, Gail Collins will be sooo bored—and so will TPM. Awful.


Josh does great first-hand reporting, but he is the party's man, down the line. Here's something Somerby said elsewhere about TPM:

A bit of background: Our opinion of Josh has dropped and dropped over the past several years. In our view, he was out there in the summer of 2002, saying things he knew were untrue, and he has refused to tell you, over the years, about the real shape of your politics. (Today’s post in an example.) With growing surprise, we’ve watched him turn himself into the Inconsequential Republican Blow-Job Police, presumably as a way to throw bones to his readers, whom he apparently takes to be dimwits. (If we may borrow from the Steinbeck: Whenever an inconsequential state senator gives someone a blow job, Josh will be there.) A few months ago, we reviewed his work from 1999 and 2000, and we were truly stunned by its brilliance—stunned because we’d grown accustomed to the dumbed-down version of Josh we’d been reading over the past several years.

Summer 2002 was when Josh was pumping the Iraq war. He continued to pump it right up to the time the invasion was imminent when it suddenly dawned on him the Bush admin was incompetent and had nothing planned past Shock & Awe.

[Teaser]

1. Somerby has a hard on/hate on for anyone who gets more traffic

It's a shame, the Daily Howler used to be worth reading.

[belpejic]

2. And he never came clean

He never out and out said he was wrong. Never took ownership of all the baloney he spewed. I remember in the early days of the invasion when Josh was breathlessly writing about CNN coverage of US troops entering Baghdad wearing gas masks. I knew it was bs then, and I was shocked that he got pulled into it. I haven't trusted him since. He's Friedman Jr. to me.

[NashVegas]

4. Yeah, I Remember That

I gave him a pass when he finally came to his senses. Then, in 2004 election cycle, I don't think he ever had a good word to say about Dean. He didn't trash him, himself, I don't think, but his guest bloggers almost always did. It was especially noticeable after the Al Franken Come to Jesus party he held to get the press on the Kerry train.

I still read TPM, it's a great muckraking sheet, but I tune right out when he starts parroting the official story.

[senseandsensibility]

5. You're right

I remember that, too. I lost a lot of respect for him, and read him very rarely since then. But I didn't realize that he never denounced his gullible acceptance of the * administration's line.

[gulfcoastliberal]

3. Mockingbirds in cyberspace. nt