More On Wha’ Happened

The irony, it burns.

Sorry Karen, but for many of us NYers, we see this as good news. A clear majority of us just felt that she was using her celebrity to be considered. If she really wanted to be a Senator, then she can run in the next election. No one thought she was a bad person, but not the best choice for the job.

The rich cheating on their taxes, who woulda guesed?

KT- I saw your report that the Kennedy clan (Ted’s) is furious with Caroline for blaming her withdrawal on Ted’s health. I think one of the knocks on Caroline was that she would not be able to with stand the press scrunity and the real heat that comes with the national level of politics was accurate.

The irony is that if she were to run in 2010, I’d consider voting for her. I only resented her for trying to jump in line in an “okay, I’ll let you make me senator now,” kind of way.

Don’t care about her housekeeper or nanny and I can’t imagine that many in New York would, either. People who live in glass apartments shouldn’t throw stones after all and busy New Yorkers are not going to turn away a competent and trustworthy nanny just because they don’t have a silly I-9 form.

Could we get more updates on the open NY Senate seat please?

This story has huge ramifications for the nation, the world and humanity at large. Hopefully the media will spare no expense getting to the bottom of this story which will affect every man, woman and child in this country. God bless our press corps!

Yarr, KT – poor form, lassie, poor form. Th’ facts o’ th’ matter regardin’ Timothy Geithner no warrant th’ snide tone ye be takin’. He were makin’ mistakes wi’ his taxes an’ paid up th’ arrears. He were checkin’ th’ papers o’ his housekeeper when she be startin’ in his employ an’ they were a-ok.
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I be fearsome ashamed ye be participatin’ in th’ continued obfuscatin’ an’ twistin’ o’ th’ truth.

thank you cincy for expressing exactly how I felt about this momentous news that may well have changed my life.
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Snark aside, it is a perfectly acceptable snippet for a brief blog post.

She has had a life time to enter the political arena, and didn’t for whatever reasons. She and her brother were political sure bets, America’s children. Whatever. Move on. What would have been really fun was if she had run against Hillary in the primary way back when.

Can Paterson now please just name his selection already. Why is this dragging on so long?

I guess I don’t get why the “T” is getting dropped from “what.”

So I was happy to see a press pool area at the whitehouse.gov website. I’ve appreciate KT’s posting of the pool report. But, alas, not to be. The media won’t let the white house use the pool.
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transparency for the goose, but not for the gander. I assume this is partly because of its snarky, dismissive “savvy” nature.

You guys are aware that news comes in all sizes. Not everything is momentous and life-changing. But it is news. And there is a market for it. So why the harrumphs and snark? Not your cup of tea? Move on to the next item.
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That said, for the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy’s on-again/off-again availability for the NY Senate seat is local news. And should be covered as part of the continuing reporting on the replacement for Hillary. Which, I gather, it is.
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Have we become so pampered and self-indulgent via the web that we expect ONLY the news we want to be covered? And ONLY the aspects of that to be discussed?

I assume this is partly because of its snarky, dismissive “savvy” nature.

You would be correct. Pool reports are the one occasion reporters get to express their wit and cleverness AND show their insider status. Before blogs, that is.
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I wish the rest of the world could see the pool reports, which might better help demystify political reporting.

davemc, ok. But new news becomes old news fast. This news is already old, and I for one don’t care to hear more about it.

Fool I am. I don’t want to hear more about it, yet, I am here.

K_Teezy,
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Nice post. You get the different between matters of substance and matters of fun, and give your readers both.

I wish the rest of the world could see the pool reports, which might better help demystify political reporting.
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If you’re seeing ‘em dave, share.

Would if I had ‘em, jayackroyd. That part of my life ended a few months ago.
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Now the only pool reports I get is my beloved suggesting I clean the leaves out.

I’d put nothing past Caroline as to skeletons destroying her Senate bid. She was a bit less than forthcoming through the entire process.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

davemc321
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I don’t have a problem with this post by K Teezie but I do have to say that at times its frustrating as hell to see posts here about nothing when more substantive issues are going on. I think we had MAYBE 3 posts on Swampland about the war in the Gaza strip which left over 1000 Palestinians dead and thousands more injured and I believe 13 Israelis dead also. So while I am good with this particular post (mostly because it was KT that put it up) I do understand the frustrations of many commenters here with posts that aren’t all that substantive.

Am I the first or last to note the irony that CK was in charge of VETTING for Obama?

“That part of my life ended a few months ago”
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Were you a political reporter, Dave?
What part of political reporting do you feel needs to be demystified or do you mean that in a more general how sausage gets made sense?

“Snark aside, it is a perfectly acceptable snippet for a brief blog post”
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Wasn’t so much reacting to KT’s post, it is acceptable. Rather I’m reacting to the round the clock coverage of this on the teevee.
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“Not everything is momentous and life-changing.”
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These days they are…take a look around. No, seriously, take a look around cuz next time you turn around it might be gone.
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“Have we become so pampered and self-indulgent via the web that we expect ONLY the news we want to be covered? And ONLY the aspects of that to be discussed?”
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Treasury Dept regulators offered to falsify documents on behalf of IndyMac…heard that on the news yet? Pampered? The ‘journalists’ who simply regurgitate talking points/emails from the RNC and get paid well to do so are more pampered than me I think.

The REALLY BAD NEWS: y’all will have one fewer (Democratic, and female, but that’s just a coincidence) person whose “you knows” you can count, and then make fun of.

Is it okay to say that government will go on with or without another Kennedy, however illustrious? The plebes will welcome a respite from celebrities.

I was a bureau chief at the Dallas Morning News, covering a huge swath of Texas, and occasionally Northern Mexico and Louisiana. I was also the bureau in its entirety. We were nothing if not cheap.
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I didn’t cover politics full time. I did a lot of election coverage over the years though, covering state and national campaigns of interest and filling in at the capitol bureau as a sometime utility infielder.
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I did one or two weekends at Crawford and saw the WH press in their glory. The higher up in the food chain political coverage gets, the more insular and self-referential it gets. My colleagues covering the Texas capitol put in long hours of research and study to have the context of all those sessions and hearings they covered. No so much the national folks. My perception, anyway.
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To answer your question, I was talking more about the sausage making aspects of journalism. It’s never pretty and until things went 24/7, we had the luxury of time to get all the false starts, incomplete information and misperceptions out of the way before deadline.
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Questions of what needs to be demystified is a complex and much more nuanced issue, definitely deeper than the usual “you’re all a bunch of stenographers,” etc. and would take more time and whiskey than we have available. The short answer: the woes of journalism are largely self-inflicted. It’s not as mysterious a process as we let on. And that’s come back to bite us on the ass.

[...] it is refreshing to see at least one liberal journo crack a joke about Kennedy and Geithner. From a Jan. 22 Swampland blog post by Karen [...]

[...] it is refreshing to see at least one liberal journo crack a joke about Kennedy and Geithner. From a Jan. 22 Swampland blog post by Karen [...]

Is this what you’re talking about cincy?

In a Washington Post story Jan 2, the following paragraph ran: The Treasury Department’s inspector general reported last week that a senior official of the Office of Thrift Supervision knowingly allowed IndyMac to conceal the depth of its financial problems only weeks before it failed by falsifying a key financial filing.
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And Forbes ran a story yesterday about the ‘second savings & loan scandal.
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If not, than it will be covered. Maybe not to the degree you wish.

Oops. Left out the link to the Forbes story.

davemc321…and of course most Americans get their news from Forbes. You’ve only served to make my point , I’m focused on teevee media, since that is overwhelmingly where Americans get their news and where the most damage is done. If Americans actually read newspapers, we might not be in Iraq…it’s debatable anyway. That 30 or 40 percent that think Saddam was behind 9/11 get their news from teevee. Admit it, you didn’t hear about that story until I mentioned it and then you googled it…correct? So the teevee press spent close to 80% of the day covering the re-oath and Caroline Kennedy and not a word on the criminal conspiracy involving Treasury and IndyMac. Which is more important? I think it’s the Treasury/IndyMac story, then again I am so very, very pampered.

They did cover the Blackberry story though Dave…so there’s that.

More un-named sources?
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The same story?
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Do these people have no sense of self-awareness whatsoever?
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Do political reporters really think that this method of reporting is credibility-enhancing?

[...] it is refreshing to see at least one liberal journo crack a joke about Kennedy and Geithner. From a Jan. 22 Swampland blog post by Karen [...]

1. I don’t defend or even attempt to explain TV news.
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2. I will pledge to use my considerable influence to have cincy made News Judgment Czar.

Paterson lucked out on that one, but no one else saw it coming either!

Sad, and pathetic really that Caroline didn’t step forward and publicly address all of this. I look at it as a father, and I’d be disappointed if she was my kid. Stuff happens, people make mistakes, it’s no big deal. But, honestly Caroline – step up why don’t you?

If CK can’t handle the pressure or scrutiny of being considered/named for a vacant seat, what chance could she possibly have in 2010 when she would have to go through a primary and then a general election? My guess is that she would have to stand all the time because having her butt thoroughly chewed would make sitting too painful. I think the democrats dodged a bullet on this one. This episode is going to be just a footnote. I’d be surprised if she even considers a run in two years.

KT — where are you? Lots of posts in Hawaii. Now what?