Ivins writes of the media and Mr. Bush:
When I reread this today I was reminded by the promotion mode that the papers around Nashville went into shortly before and after Fred Thompson announced his run for the highest office in the land a few months ago. All of that uncritical press seems to have cooled with Mr. Thompson's lackluster start out of the gate.It was clear to insiders Bush was going for president well before his second gubernatorial campaign, and it also became clear that at least some Austin bureau chiefs had decided to hitch their stars to Bush's wagon. He was their ticket to Washington, their entree into the bigs, their chance to become talking head on the Sunday chat shows. The result was a genuinely embarrassing amount of ass-kissing by some political reporters.*
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*This tendency to brown-nose is so pronounced, The Texas Observer once opined that if the press corps' noses got any closer to Dubya's behind, reporters would be in violation of the state sodomy laws.
However, if his numbers and prominence start to rise, we should be as vigilant of the closing distance between media noses and Mr. Thompson's own bum. I imagine that there are some reporters around here who would love to accompany the Hollywood actor to the big beltway dance and they are willing ignore some unflattering facts or to cut corners on critical news to make that glass slipper fit.
There is an anonymous comment sitting in my moderation box from an anonymous commenter that looks like general campaign spam from the Thompson campaign. It really doesn't address this post directly but generally touts Mr. Thompson as a strong candidate. Enclave does typically not allow spam and I reserve the right to publish anonymous comments as I see fit. If the author of the comment will re-write the it to address this post so that it doesn't look like a campaign-related spam piece then I will publish it. Spam kills debate in comment sections.
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