Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

Who is Chris Matthews talking to?
Who is Tim Russert talking to? They’re both seasoned and smart and famous and well-paid broadcast journalists. They have almost total access to establishment Washington. That establishment is a small club of friends, comprised of elected officials, ex-officials, political operatives, a handful of (approved) political scientists and lots of other reporters. In their minds, that’s all you need to ‘cover’ an election. But ‘club’ is the essential word. They think they are being insightful, but they are just swimming in a shallow pool of conventional wisdom that bounces back and forth from the New York Times, to the Note, to the Hot Line, to Hardball, to a handful of (approved) blogs and back again. It’s a distorted and unsatisfying conversation for everyone except those having the conversation.

So whom are they talking to? They are talking to each other. They are parroting the Washington Post and the New York Times, they are sharing cocktail conversation from the night before. Like sportcasters during a close game, it doesn’t matter what they say during the game as long as it seems they predicted the outcome by the end.
Why is this a problem? The American voter, the American news consumer is not invited to the party. They’re not dressed right. They didn’t go to the right schools. They are just …not…bright enough to appreciate the irony of American political life. What we have to do is throw a party that everyone gets to come to and then report on that conversation!

Bob Calo, UC Berkeley News21