Prometheus 6

Bowling 1, Health Care 0
By ELIZABETH EDWARDS 

I am saying that every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture.

"Strobe-light journalism." Nice metaphor. 

Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden’s health care plan? Anything at all?

As it happens, I did. 

But let me guess, you know Barack Obama’s bowling score...Indeed, the Biden campaign was covered more for its missteps than anything else.

All Biden's explanations made sense. All of them were totally acceptable to me, to the point where when he slipped up I'd make no judgement until I heard his explanation. I just had to suspend judgement a few times too many.

I think pretty highly of Biden's foreign policy knowledge. But I can't be spending time pulling someone's foot out of their mouth all the time. Overall, though, she's right.

Chris Dodd, also a serious candidate with a distinguished record, received much the same treatment. I suspect that there was more coverage of the burglary at his campaign office in Hartford than of any other single event during his run other than his entering and leaving the campaign.

Who is responsible for the veil of silence over Senator Biden? Or Senator Dodd? Or Gov. Tom Vilsack? Or Senator Sam Brownback on the Republican side?

The decision was probably made by the same people who decided that Fred Thompson was a serious candidate. Articles purporting to be news spent thousands upon thousands of words contemplating whether he would enter the race, to the point that before he even entered, he was running second in the national polls for the Republican nomination. Second place! And he had not done or said anything that would allow anyone to conclude he was a serious candidate. A major weekly news magazine put Mr. Thompson on its cover, asking — honestly! — whether the absence of a serious campaign and commitment to raising money or getting his policies out was itself a strategy.

Even taking Biden into account, she's right.