For M$M Clinton's Balls (and other appendage) Rule! via Atrios/FiredogLake

[KoKo]

ATRIOS Comments on "Firedoglake:

The broader issue … is that the mainstream media has long had multiple conflicting and inconsistent standards when it comes to the private lives of public figures, especially politicians and members of their own club. More than that it presents yet another mainstream media corrupt habit of making something news for no particular reason and then pretending that the story just appeared out of nowhere, even when in this case there is literally no semi-legitimate hook for it. In this case it’s doubly corrupt because it’s The Paper of Record, which as we all know is liberal, so that gives additional license for the rest of the corporate press to jump on the story. There’s also the little issue of the press’s history with the Clintons, where at some point there was no personal detail, no matter how poorly sourced, which was not considered to be legitimate news. One would’ve liked to have thought that post-Monica Madness this little habit was beaten out of them, that maybe they even had a few regrets, though it’s clear again that it’s not the case. The Clinton Rules of Journalism never left us.

The broader issue … is that the mainstream media has long had multiple conflicting and inconsistent standards when it comes to the private lives of public figures, especially politicians and members of their own club. More than that it presents yet another mainstream media corrupt habit of making something news for no particular reason and then pretending that the story just appeared out of nowhere, even when in this case there is literally no semi-legitimate hook for it. In this case it’s doubly corrupt because it’s The Paper of Record, which as we all know is liberal, so that gives additional license for the rest of the corporate press to jump on the story. There’s also the little issue of the press’s history with the Clintons, where at some point there was no personal detail, no matter how poorly sourced, which was not considered to be legitimate news. One would’ve liked to have thought that post-Monica Madness this little habit was beaten out of them, that maybe they even had a few regrets, though it’s clear again that it’s not the case. The Clinton Rules of Journalism never left us.

And, finally, it puts on display the utter vapidity of the press corps we’re dealing with. If Dean Broder, who has been covering Washington since 1820, can’t sit through a 45 minute speech on energy policy, and the press on Air Force One would rather watch King Kong than the Hayden hearings, while they devote their time and resources to a long 50-source article about how often the Clintons are getting busy, then we have a problem, and it’s not something we’re going to clear up at a blogger ethics panel.

Back to Firedoglake's observations:

And I would add that there is another equally pernicious dimension to this. This tabloidization of political news is almost exclusively focused on Democrats and gives the impression that the left is unserious. John Kerry’s butler and his strange, wealthy wife. Dean’s flinty personality and odd, reclusive wife. Gore’s pathological lying and his phony manhood. The list goes on. It’s all very "entertaining" but it makes people associate Democrats with celebrities in the most shallow sense.
http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/05/25/clinton-rules/

[Canuckistanian]

1. Is Broder married?

How's HIS sex life? I think the Washington Post should do an exposé about Broder's wife and the shock she got on their honeymoon.

The people have a right to know.

[Auntie Bush]

2. Yeah! I'd like to know too. I wonder how many times a week........

We should all write him and ask personal questions...not only him but many other conservative and Times reporters.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. And how about the writer of the NYT page-one piece?

What's his story?