Note:  After JournoList, and years of experiencing the obvious bias of the leftist press masquerading as trustworthy reports, I just can’t call “the Media” anything so dignified as mainstream anymore.  So, I’m going with a new term to refer to the cabal of leftist press operatives who daily coordinate their liberal talking points: the “Make-Believe Media.”

As in all matters Obama, the Make-Believe Media of JournoList infamy again appears inexplicably incurious in its reporting of the Wikileaks publication of the Afghanistan Papers.  Wikileaks’ Julian Assange claims that, via the New York Times, he asked the White House for help in reviewing the secret documents, a charge confirmed by the Times but denied by the White House.

However, the White House gives conflicting versions of what happened.  On Monday, Robert Gibbs admitted that the White House made no request to Wikileaks not to publish but did ask the group’s founder, Julian Assange, through reporters at the New York Times “to redact information that could … harm personnel or threaten operations or security.”

So, talking out of both sides of its press orifice, the White House denies it was asked in advance for help redacting the documents, while admitting it asked Wikileaks in advance to redact the documents on its own.  Well, gee, which is it? (more…)

David Brooks is a thoughtful writer and, by all appearances, a nice fellow.

But on his February 9 appearance on Charlie Rose, Brooks painfully revealed the limits of his understanding and the poverty of his vision.  These failings are not exclusive to Brooks — rather, they are typical of the class with which Brooks self-identifies, the hyper-educated coastal elite.

Of the Tea Party, for example, Brooks told Rose, “It’s not conservative, it’s not pro-Republican, it’s just a recoil from what’s happening [in Washington].”  Has Brooks actually convinced himself of this tripe?  The tea partiers recoil from Washington precisely because of their commitment to small-government conservatism; because Washington now represents the antithesis of their deeply held conservative principles.  Brooks would know this if he actually talked to some Tea Party members instead of viewing them with horror and barely concealed disgust from his Beltway offices. (more…)