Monday, June 27, 2005

Romenesko on the Hillary Clinton Bandwagon

The problem with blandly accepting the Romenesko "daily line" as gospel is illustrated today, in his "coverage" of the Hillary Clinton/Ed Klein imbroglio. Romenesko lists four stories:

1. Rutten in LA Times suggests "journalists stop writing about Klein's book
2. CNN: "This book makes Kitty Kelley seem like Woodward & Bernstein."
3. "Ed Slime" fires back at Tina Brown in the New York Post
4. Tomasky: "This book isn't simple trash. It may well be libel" (APO)

Whew. Three out of four negatives? I mean, doesn't Jim here find it a little bit offensive that Hillary is trying to crush the book and keep him off news shows? Couldn't he add in just one itsy-bitsy link from, say, Newsmax? Klein "said in an interview the senator threatened the mainstream television networks over the book, saying she would no longer appear on any TV outlet that hosted Klein."

Or maybe put over on the sidebar, where nobody will notice, a link to a blog which was told by Klein, "Because of my book, Hillary and her war machine have called every major television network in the United States and suggested to them that if they have Ed Klein on to discuss his book, they can forget about Hillary being a guest on their network."

Just asking. I mean, I don't want to suggest he should be "fair" or anything like that.