Touching American Journalism

Touching American Journalism’s Third Rail

Social Security reform has long been regarded as the “third rail” of American politics, a comparison of an attempt to change FDR’s retirement program to making contact with a subway car’s electrical source. The warning is clear: touch it and you die. It has scared off politicians for decades, but President Bush has decided to defy those who lack the moral courage to save a system that most young people doubt will ever pay them benefits.

American journalism has a “third rail” too, but it doesn’t have a warning label and few would acknowledge its existence. I recently discovered this hidden peril following a presidential press conference when I asked:

“Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?”

Bush responded with a four-paragraph answer that I believe validated my question and gave him an opportunity to present his view of the economy and the agenda he wanted to pursue. Nearly 40 previous questions from my colleagues had failed to address an issue Senate Democrats had belabored only two days before with much fanfare.

It was not until a short time later that I began to realize what I had done. Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh began his show highlighting my question and claiming credit for its premise. In truth, I hadn’t listened to the program where he discussed this topic at length the day before, but he is the one who originated the term ‘soup lines” to describe Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s dour comments. I picked it up while surfing internet sites and recognized that it was a precise characterization of the new Democratic leader's gloomy vision of the economy that parroted the tired rhetoric of the failed Kerry campaign.

It is not unreasonable to question Reid and Clinton’s statements, because they defy logic, but reporters have yet to do so, not are likely to anytime soon. How can the economy be in shambles but Social Security be rock solid? The system is a Ponzi scheme and the lockbox Democrats talk about is full of IOUs, not cash. If the economy is on the “brink of collapse” then Social Security is most certainly doomed. In fact, today’s economy is stronger than when Mrs. Clinton’s husband ran for re-election in 1996, but she wasn’t making dire predictions then.

I don’t know what has sparked more outrage from the Hard Left, who is now waging a jihad to silence me, whether it was quoting Rush Limbaugh or highlighting the contradictory statements of Reid and the presumptive 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. It’s probably a combination of the two, but the Left shouldn’t worry, the networks will bury the footage of my question alongside the reels of John Kerry’s antiwar demonstrations and participation in the Winter Soldier investigation and the Whoopie Goldberg anti-Bush rant at a Kerry fundraiser.

Those who know my work realize that my question is not an unusual one in its tone or content. I have consistently questioned the White House about their desire to appease Democrats by including them in the legislative process. Despite the will of the American people who have voted Democrats out of power and into a smaller minority in the last three elections, the Bush administration continues to “reach out” to people who have no intention of reaching back. In fact, Reid recently vowed even more obstruction than his predecessor, Tom Daschle.

Democrats who ruled the House for 40 years never felt compelled to work with the Republican minority, but when they find themselves out of power, they plead for bipartisanship. Bipartisanship to them, however, means giving them what they want. During the first Bush term, look what bipartisanship has wrought: the No Child Left Behind Act that Democrats say spend enough money, the Medicare prescription drug program that Democrats say doesn’t spend enough money, tax cuts that Democrats say spends too much money and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that applied more White-Out to the First Amendment than the Patriot Act ever could and put more money into the 2004 presidential campaigns than anytime in history.

In answering my question, the President noted all of the things that Democrats filibustered for four years including, legal reform, asbestos reform, class-action reform, medical liability reform, an energy bill, trade agreements and judicial nominees. On Social Security he has decided to go directly to the American people, around Democrats as well as the media.

But political issues aside, my contact with American journalism’s “third rail” centers on the belief by members of the Left that the White House briefing room isn’t big enough for one conservative journalist. They are once again demonstrating their hypocrisy when it comes to free speech and diversity, they believe in it only for those who agree with them.

Consider if I had asked:

“Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there's no crisis there. Will you now admit the failure of your economic policies and roll back the tax cuts so jobs will stop going overseas and everyone can have health care and we can protect the environment?”

My question wouldn’t have stood out much at the briefing, but I would have gotten a few back slaps for “speaking truth to power”, the code words of the Left for playing the “gotcha” game with a Republican. Somebody would have bought me lunch over at the National Press Club afterwards.

Everything that happens after this for me will illustrate the same thing happening in the media as is happening on Capitol Hill. Democrats who continue to lose power and influence are resorting to extreme measures to win support. But that strategy is failing badly and only resulting in accelerating their downward spiral.

The Old Media is tracking in the same way. The success of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh has exploded the myth of an unbiased news media. But it has yet to admit the partisanship that Red State America has known for many years.

The 2004 election was devastating for the Old Media, because it put everything it had into defeating George Bush, using phony documents, promoting every Bush-bashing book and film and coordinating attacks with 527s and the Democratic Party and still could not proclaim “mission accomplished.”

There will be skirmishes along the way while the Left tries to postpone the demise of the Old Media, attacking those who pose the greatest threat to the power their jointly hold. I appear to be one of the latest targets.