WP: Four . . . More . . . Years? The Left Contemplates the Unthinkable

[kskiska]

By Howard Kurtz

The cover of the Washington Monthly asks the burning question: "WHAT IF HE WINS?"

The outcome of the race remains in doubt, of course, but there are huge implications for the media -- especially its openly liberal branch -- if President Bush is reelected next week. Some are already using apocalyptic terms. The New Yorker is backing John Kerry today in the first endorsement in its 80-year history.

(snip)

It's no secret that many journalists feel burned by the administration's WMD claims during the run-up to war and that their coverage has gotten tougher over the past year. Will attitudes harden on both sides if they have to coexist for another four years?

"I think journalists will accept the judgment of the public and read the victory as an acceptance that the rules are now changed," says Washington Monthly Editor Paul Glastris, a former Clinton administration official. "The way they've been treated, the way the administration buries information and misrepresents almost anything they want to would just be an accepted fact of life. There will be a defining down of the acceptable standards of what government can do."

Here are what some liberals had to say in Glastris's magazine about a second Bush term:

CNN's Paul Begala: "He and his allies are likely to embark on a campaign of political retribution the likes of which we haven't seen since Richard Nixon."

Columbia's Todd Gitlin: "I would not be surprised to see outbursts of political violence the likes of which we haven't seen since the Weather Underground of the 1970s."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59786-2004Oct24.html

[fugop]

1. Recent?

Sheesh, is Howie just now running this? I could swear this was two issues back in WM.

[MotownLew]

2. That's the Problem?

I was at a MoveOnPac meeting last week and sat next to a charming older woman who was a "Democratic Socialist?"

She looked a bit like Yoko Ono, grew up in Austria, and said there weren't too many like her other than "a few old folks and a handful of kids at (a local university)." She was there to see how she could help -- and I got the feeling anything I would have considered radical wouldn't have blinked her eye.

As we all said "one" thing we weren't happy with as we introduced ourselves, a lot of people kept adding "if" or "should" Senator Kerry win, then... She leaned over and said, in her broken accent (think Ah-nold) "zis is da problehm wiss da democratz. Wishy-woshy. bleh." She meant it in a good way -- the get up off the couch and turn off CNN to go vote, way.

I took that as constructive criticism. I knocked on over 100 doors over the weekend since that meeting. I encourage all of you to do the same.

[hansolsen]

3. Interesting article that illustrates the fact most news consumers are not

vewry discriminating. Our neighbors fail to see the bias that isserved with news in great heaping gollops. They must assume that is just a side dish.

[LiberteToujours]

4. I refuse to think about it until that happens

IF it happens, we have four long years to worry about it. Right now I would much rather focus on Kerry winning.