Romenesko Shows His True Colors

Media blogger Jim Romenesko shows his political stripes today, as he gives prominent display to the kooky Russ Baker, an obscure journo who is trying to get attention by viciously attacking Judith Miller. (He infamously compared Miller's prison stay to a "book leave.")

Romenesko--who has made a fetish of ignoring significant media stories that don't fit his political biases, such as the UN Correspondent Scandal -- today prominently links to a polemic Baker wrote for an ultra-left website called TomPaine.com. In it, Baker attacks a Times editorial on Miller.

Basically Baker just regurgitates his old grievance, which is that Miller failed to adhere to his standards of political correctness in her reporting on the UN and Iraq. Thus he puts himself, ironically, on the same side as Times critics on the right (as well as fourth-rate hacks like the UN consultant-correspondent Ian Williams, who hates Miller's tough reporting on his sometime employer, the UN).

This unprincipled, cynical hack is, by the way, a contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review. To pile an irony on that irony, Baker bills himself as an "investigative reporter" who has founded an "organization dedicated to revitalizing investigative journalism."

Oops! Typo. I think he meant to say, "dedicated to denigrating real journalists."