Get Christie Love

John Podhoretz, writing for the New York Post, on why journalists prefer covering the misdeeds of the Christie administration versus the misdeeds that happen down I-95:

There is a fundamental misunderstanding among conservatives about the causes of partisan media bias — the reason there is unequal coverage of scandals of this kind. It exists not because there is a conscious effort to soft-pedal bad news for politicians you like and to push hard on bad news for politicians you don’t. 

It’s actually more personal — more relatable, shall we say—than that.

Journalists know the Obamans. Intimately. They know them from college, they know them from work, they know them from kids’ soccer. They’re literally married to them.

To the journalists, the Obamans don’t look like crooks and cheats. Far from it. For them, it’s like looking in a mirror.

In September, Elspeth Reeve of The Atlantic Wire took note of 24 major journalists who have taken posts at senior levels in the Obama administration. All of them have worked for decades in various news organizations, thus creating personal ties and bonds of affection with literally hundreds of working reporters and editors.

The journalists are not covering up for their friends and their spouses. They just believe the people they know could not be responsible for behaving badly, or cravenly, or for crass political advantage —and the tone they strike when such things are discussed is often one of offense, as though it is a sign of low character to believe otherwise. It would be, well, like believing the journalists themselves were crooks.

This is what is called a distinction without a difference. Not to put to fine a point on it, but I don't give a crap about their motives. It's wrong. Can't change it, but you have to call it what it is. Christie's mistake was assuming that the favorable coverage he received for his adoring stroll along the beach with Obama before the 2012 election was a sign of genuine affection, true love for the frog as he carried the scorpion across the river, under the shadow of the George Washington Bridge.

You misheard them, Governor. They weren't calling you "cherie." They were calling you Charmin. And now that the moment has arrived, they are demonstrating the proper use for Charmin.