Why they hate the New York Times

* via ron, Jay Rosen takes a walk through cheney's behaviour in shooting-gate. jay gets it wrong, mostly. He's somewhat correct in saying that the focus on cheney meant that the press wasn't focussing on other important issues, despite FNC's 'slow-news-week' meme. But Jay is wrong in his main thesis which is:

"The way I look at it, Cheney took the opportunity to show the White House press corps that it is not the natural conduit to the nation-at-large; and it has no special place in the information chain. Cheney does not grant legitimacy to the large news organizations with brand names who think of themselves as proxies for the public and its right to know."

here's the thing (and this goes beyond shootergate), the egadmin hates any institution that can possibly undermine it - so they actively, cleverly, take potshots at any institution that might be critical of them. It's the same with ivory-tower types, elites, newspapers, foreign govts, the UN, logic, mathematics, LeftBlogistan - even "washington."

That's why we see such nonsense just this morning where Matalin (and everyone) is pushing the meme that "real america doesnt care about this", and its why Gigot " was looking at it from outside the Beltway," and we get Bobo's World, and we get "French-looking" John Kerry, and Oil4Food and the Campus Professor Watch Lists etc etc.

The purpose is that redvoters are primed, in advance, to be able to discount any criticism, from anywhere, about their Codpiece-in-Chief Who Can Do No Wrong. And of course, we see the same thing, amply demonstrated by Glenn earlier in the week, in the immediate expulsion of any Conservative who takes a look in the Ugly Mirror and realises the horror of their ways, and is instantly tarnished as a liberal or something else.