The president is growing frustrated with the state of the establishment news media:
I mentioned that I was in Asia on this trip thinking about the economy, when I sat down for a round of interviews. Not one of them asked me about Asia. Not one of them asked me about the economy. I was asked several times about had I read Sarah Palin’s book. (Laughter.) True. But it’s an indication of how our political debate doesn’t match up with what we need to do and where we need to go.
Exactly. As John Cole points out, Chuck Todd's Twitter feed is perhaps the best/worst example of this.
Here's the frustrating thing. I always thought one way we could achieve a better news media was to demand more substance -- and then to simply pay attention to it. Ratings driving content. But when the host of the last place show on MSNBC's prime time lineup takes home a $5 million a year salary while other hosts on that network were fired simply because they opposed the Iraq war, it's clear that ratings are secondary to inside-Washington relationships and wankery.