Media Review by KURTZ

Howard Kurtz - Washington Post

Anonymous Sniping

There's a big blogosphere debate brewing over an anonymous source quoted by Politico in a piece about the president's decision to release those torture memos. The story, by Mike Allen, begins with an on-the-record David Axelrod describing the reasoning behind the decision. Then comes this:
"A former top official in the administration of President George W. Bush called the publication of the memos 'unbelievable.' " 'It's damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama's action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are,' the official said. 'We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary . . . Publicizing the techniques does grave damage to our national security by ensuring they can never be used again -- even in a ticking-time-bomb scenario where thousands or even millions of American lives are at stake.'
" 'I don't believe Obama would intentionally endanger the nation, so it must be that he thinks either 1. the previous administration, including the CIA professionals who have defended this program, is lying about its importance and effectiveness, or 2. he believes we are no longer really at war and no longer face the kind of grave threat to our national security this program has protected against.' "
I'm critical of this practice for two reasons. One, this guy is being allowed to take hard shots at the president from behind a curtain of anonymity. Second, it's not like there aren't ex-Bushies out there who'd be willing to go on the record.
Andrew Sullivan goes further, calling Allen a Bush "mouthpiece":
"Allen is allowing a member of the administration that broke the Geneva Conventions and commited war crimes to attack the current president and claim, without any substantiation, that the torture worked. He then allows that 'top official' to proclaim things that are at the very least highly questionable. What journalistic standard is Allen following in allowing such a person to speak anonymously?"
Mike Allen responds on Politico that while he was writing the story, "a very well-known former Bush administration official e-mailed some caustic criticism of Obama's decision to release the memos. I asked the former official to be quoted by name, but this person refused, e-mailing: 'Please use only on background.'
"I wasn't surprised: While Karl Rove and former Vice President Dick Cheney have certainly let loose in public comments, most top Bush officials have been reluctant to go on the record criticizing Obama. They have new careers, and they know it's a fight they'll never win. He's popular; they're not -- they get it.
"I figured that readers could decide whether the former Bush official's comments sounded defensive or vindictive. And POLITICO readers aren't so delicate that we have to deceptively pretend there's no other side to a major issue."

******
SARAH PALIN:-

Palin's Problems
As Sarah Palin struggles with Alaska politics, she can't seem to buy a good headline. In the Daily Beast, Reihan Salam says Palin has turned him off:
"Levi Johnston, a 19-year-old with a perhaps undeserved reputation as a backwoods simpleton, has done what Barack Obama and Joe Biden and sneering liberals and cringing conservatives couldn't: He has killed off Sarah Palin as a serious contender for the next Republican presidential nomination. And I have to say, this depresses the hell out of me . . .
"This is only the latest indignity in the long, slow downward spiral that's been Palin's brief career as a national figure, as everything clever and distinctive about her has been replaced by an unrecognizable Reaganite fembot caricature. Months before Palin was selected as McCain's running mate, I told anyone who'd listen that she'd be the shrewdest pick. When she addressed the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, I was utterly electrified. But during the latter days of the campaign, I started hearing rumors about how top-level McCain backers were shuttling back-and-forth to Alaska to put out various fires, and of course there has been a steady drumbeat of stories about Palin's low-level abuse of power. Then there is the fact that the national Republican Party has destroyed much of what was great about Sarah Palin, and she let them do it . . .
"Palin's campaign antics can be forgiven. What can't be forgiven is the ham-handed way she's tried to build her national profile since she returned to Alaska. She's abandoned the bold right-left populism that won over Alaska voters -- and me -- in the first place in favor of an increasingly defensive and harsh partisanship. After making her name as a determined enemy of Alaska's corrupt Republican establishment, she recently called for Democratic Sen. Mark Begich to step down so the hilariously crooked Ted Stevens could get another crack at the seat. She loudly promised to leave federal stimulus money on the table before clawing that promise back with a whimper. One can't help but get the impression that Palin is a clownish, vindictive amateur."

*****

Editor note: KURTZ does one of the best media shows on TV Sundays on CNN 7am pdt.
Howard is a very good journalist covering the media.