Standing up for the fourth estate

by Ari Rutenberg

Well its nice to be able to report once again that there are at least some journalists willing to do there jobs and not simply bow to White House demands and rules. During the farewell press conference for Karl Rove, though I have a sneaking suspicion that we've not seen the last of him, reporters were told there would be no questions form the press. And most reporters complied. But one intrepid journalist, CBS correspondent Bill Plante, did not acquiesce. Instead he shouted, several times and with no response, one simple question of Karl Rove. Plante asked "“If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?". Well thank you, Mr. Plante. Not only has he challenged the notion that the White House should completely control the agenda. He has also used a rare press conference with one of the most controversial political figures of our time to challenge the conventional wisdom about Mr. Rove, which is that he is some kind of genius and not just a crass, base manipulator who exploits the worst of human nature to achieve his ideological ends. The best part is that he is now on the recieving end of some vitriol from the right-wing blogosphere. So I guess you must be on the right track when these dishonest, self-deceiving, greedy, unenlightened people are all over you because it means that you must be on the right track in terms of exposing their lies and hypocrisy. It's too bad that there are so few serious journalists who are willing to speak truth to power, which I had always assumed was the only job of journalists, that it is noteworthy enough to remark on each individual reporter who does so.