The Media ... Stirring Itself?

Barry Ritholtz has posted quite a summary of the events that have begun to turn the complicit corporate press around on the Bush presidency: "A lack of vigorous fact checking, and little challenges of outright falsehoods [by the corporate media] has enabled much of what the Bush White House has accomplished in their first term. With few exceptions (The New York Time's Paul Krugman, and the Kansas City Star come to mind), the Press has been mostly AWOL during most of President Bush's term." Why? According to Ritholtz, "W utterly charms the pants off of the press corps."

Which is why, Ritholtz says, the blogosphere has blossomed with anti-Bush sites, as the general public's dissatisfaction with the Fourth Estate has grown into outright rage. There's a good reason for a site named "MediaWhores.com."

But something new seems to be happening: "Rove & Company has lost the 'benefit of the doubt' " with the corporate media, with that new, more aggressive tone on display at El Presidente's press conference last week.

Ritholtz pegs the new aggressiveness on a single tipping point ... the media outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame via Bob Novak's column. "After years of spin and overtly politically motivated policies, that single event is where the White House 'jumped the shark.' I suspect it was the event that crossed the line for many professional journalists."

(Thanks to Stumpy for the tip.)