My Hero

Crooks and Liars has last night's clip of Coilin Powell's Daily Show visit (link leads to page with a link to wmv clip):

Powell was defending Bush at every turn, really defending his role in the run up to the war. Stewart did ask him good questions.

Absolutely. Jon Stewart was brilliant last night. He asked better, tougher, more probing questions than either Russert or Stephanopolis would ever dream of asking. Unfortunately, Powell simply parrotted back the party-line responses. However, Stewart was not a push-over like Larry King or Tim Russert.

This should be a lesson to the MSM.

We keep hearing that the reason that the MSM (or the SCLM) refrains from asking the tough questions for fear of retribution by the administration, and of losing the favor of their highly placed sources. So, rather than probe into a story like the DSM or question the motives in the lead up to the war in Iraq, they simply regurgitate the administration's talking points, effectively becoming a de facto propaganda arm of the administration.

Here we have a TV show that mocks the administration (equal opportunity mockery I might add) and never fails to call a spade a spade. They even poke fun at the guest sitting in the green room, yet no one has (to my knowledge) ever walked away from an appearance on the show.

Why?

Because whether the MSM know it or not, the administration needs them just as badly as the press needs its highly places sources. The administration cannot rely exclusively on Rush, Hannity, Novacula, Coulter and Rupert Murdock to get their messages out to the public. The highly placed sources won't wither-up over night because leaks are inevitable as people in power within the administration use them to wage their battles with one another.

Memo to MSM: get a frickin' spine already.

File this one under: why, oh why can't we have a better press corps?