We Need a Better News Media, Part 1,987,364

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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11 Responses

  1. LawMonkey says:

    While I wouldn’t disagree that we do need a better media, the emphasized sentence is ambiguous. It could be read as you suggest, but it could also be read as “In the minority, Pelosi will be freed from the ceremonial duties of being speaker, and also freed from the duty of crafting a governing agenda.” I suspect that’s what they were aiming for…Report

  2. Switters says:

    With all the bad journalism to complain about, you pick this one? for this reason? Did you read the article? Without offering a full critique, it touts Nancy’s accomplishments and mentions very little about Obama. How you read this “Pelosi will be freed from the ceremonial duties of being speaker and crafting a governing agenda” as the WAPO describing her responsibilities as “purely ceremonial” doesn’t appear to be in good faith. BTW, I can’t stand the WAPO.Report

    • Mark Thompson in reply to Switters says:

      Except for the bad faith accusation (which you’re justified in making), you’re right. See the retraction above. Sometimes you hit “Publish” on a post that you just know is a stinker, even if you can’t put your finger on why. Usually it’s a post like this that is written as a quick gut reaction to something taken out of context. I should know better.Report

  3. 62across says:

    I’m with the others; you’ve let the word “ceremonial” completely skew your reading of the article. To your credit, you’re not as off-base as FLG, who lets the word “freed” color the story to suggest Pelosi is relieved to not be Speaker any more.

    If you read the whole article, it’s pretty clear that Pelosi is not planning to “go quietly into that good night.” I think that is actually in keeping with your final point – that Pelosi has been pretty formidable as a Speaker. She’ll be formidable as Minority Leader as well.Report

    • Fear and Loathing in Georgetown in reply to 62across says:

      Ttrying to paint losing the speakership as some sort of improvement is silly. In pretty much every case, a politician would rather be Speaker than minority leader. To say that she will be “freed” from burdens of the office and then to imply that she will somehow be more effective in some other role “because she will be more focused,” which I do believe is that passage is trying to say, is, to put it mildly, poppycock.

      Sure, maybe she’ll be a formidable minority leader, but she’d rather be speaker. To cast it in any other light is to border on hagiography.Report

  4. Trumwill says:

    OT: What happened to Off The Cuff?Report

  5. tom van dyke says:

    What’s preposterous is the WaPo spinning Pelosi’s electoral disaster as anything but.

    I suppose in 2012, they’ll do a number on how ex-President Obama can return to his first love, community organizing.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to tom van dyke says:

      Who is running against Obama?

      The three names that come to mind most quickly are far enough away from “Generic Republican” to say that polls that pit Obama against Generic Republican can be dismissed.Report