Admittedly, this could be a post hoc ergo propter hoc. But remember when our favorite hack Mark Halperin — the very serious merchant of conventional wisdom and ridiculous lists — complained about how the establishment press was “disgusting” in its alleged support for Barack Obama?
That was only a few weeks prior to the press becoming aggressively obsessed forcably “tainting” the president-elect with Blagojevich’s stink — even though numerous analysts and the special prosecutor, along with an internal Obama transition report, agree that there was no nefarious connection. Strictly a very technical professional communication, not unlike any senator/governor situation.
The crazy train is coming. And unless I’m very wrong, Mark Halperin is one of the conductors.
UPDATE: Mercifully I didn’t watch today’s episode of Morning Joe. But Yglesias writes about today’s show:
Given that [the Morning Joe crew] knew there was no evidence of wrongdoing, they should have ceased implying that there was wrongdoing. But they didn’t do that at all. Not, I would submit, because of any failings on Obama’s part, but because Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, John Heileman, Mark Halperin, and Pat Buchanan don’t care at all about the accuracy of the impression their coverage gives.
So Halperin was on MSNBC mongering the taint, eh?
Even though I didn’t see today’s episode, the insufferable Morning Joe panelists (or whatever the hell they’re called) have engaged in this taint-mongering since the story broke — all the while admitting that the president-elect, by all accounts, is innocent of any wrongdoing.
And it’s no wonder, given their panel of very serious regulars like the very serious Mark Halperin. Not to mention the influence of NBC’s Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker who said last week (paraphrasing), “Obama wants to change the tone in Washington? He couldn’t even change the tone in Illinois!” Yep. Your “liberal” cable news network making with the liberalism.
