The progressive blogosphere has long had it out for David Broder, the man insiders consider the "dean" of the Washington press corps. Unless you've been paying careful attention to his columns over the past few decades, it may not be entirely clear to you precisely why so many are so upset with Broder. Jamison Foser over at Media Matters has just written what may be the definitive take down of Broder's long career. How one man could be so wrong for so long is almost impossible to understand, but the record is unambiguously clear.
Here's a short summary:
Think about David Broder's recent prediction of a Bush comeback; his touting of Bush's response to Katrina; his praise for Cheney and Rumsfeld; his claims that journalists should apologize to Karl Rove for saying he did something he did; his call for fewer details and less discussion of policy from candidates; his defense of Richard Nixon; his prediction that if Joe Lieberman lost his primary, Democrats would perform poorly in the general election; his double standards in his coverage of candidates personal lives; his suggestion that Bill Clinton should have resigned because he "may well have lied" about sex; his unwillingness to say that a "lawless" president who "repeatedly defied the Constitution" should step down; his elitist and arrogant statement that he and his pals care more about being lied to than you do; his hypocritical statement that Kerry's and Gore's "arrogance rankled Midwesterners such as myself."
Three of my personal favorites:
In 1969, Broder screamed from on high that Nixon was being unfairly attacked. From his perch at the Post, he knew - just knew! - that Nixon really was bringing the war in Vietnam to a rapid end.
In 2000, he lamented that the nation couldn't see how Bush was the only candidate who could "cure the poisonous partisanship of the capital city."
In 2005, he predicted that Bush's strong Response to Katrina would make all previous signs of his political weakness "instantly irrelevant."
Just this week, the Dean of admissions for MIT was fired for falsifying her resume almost 30 years ago. Despite her stellar performance over her many years of service, she was asked to leave because of her one mistake. Broder, the Dean of DC press corps, has been making mistakes on a near weekly basis for just as long, and yet...
The lack of accountability for the words elite pundits write is really astonishing. I can understand if the average reader can't keep track, but really... shouldn't their editors be paying attention?
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