WHEN THE MEDIA GETS MAD, WE MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

SAM SMITH - Since Washington journalists joined the establishment a few
decades back, their assignment has included keeping the rest of us in
line. Most of the time, it's hard to notice, as when the media was
helping to shove us into Iraq or beating the drums for a war on terror
that has left us more hated in more places than ever before without
making us any safer.

Where the effort breaks down is when, despite the media's best efforts,
some of us start to get out of line. As when criticism of Israel
increases no matter how many times they quote Abe Foxman. Or when a
bunch of Democrats in a New Hampshire focus group trash Hillary Clinton
despite all the wonderful coverage the Washington press has given her.
Or when Joe Lieberman gets in trouble for supporting the war the media
told us we had to pursue to get all those damn WMDs.

For example, Media Matters notes that "On ABC's This Week, Cokie Roberts
asserted that it would be 'a disaster for the Democratic Party' and
would lead to 'chaos' if businessman Ned Lamont were to defeat Sen.
Joseph Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary on August
8, thereby 'pushing the party to the left' and sending a message to
other senators that 'the only smart thing to do here is play to your
base.' However, as Sam Donaldson noted, opposition to the war is not
simply playing to the base, 'it's playing to the country, since the
majority of the American public opposes the war in Iraq."

Of course, to many Washington journalists it doesn't matter whether the
world hates us, or New Hampshire Democrats don't like Clinton, or
Connecticut Democrats don't like the war. They live in a political and
psychological bunker from which their projections, pronouncement and
preferences emanate. Every once in a while, however, somewhere in
American someone doesn't get the word and it becomes both revealing and
even entertaining to watch how much it disturbs the Cokie Roberts of the
world.

Besides, it could just be a sign that the canary in the mineshaft is
singing again.