Groupthink in the Media

David Broder writes that the Gang of Fourteen is a good thing and that we need more independence in American politics. I might agree if I thought that all this grandstanding was justified. What it resembles more is a bunch of sanctimony and arrogance. Broder betrays that he's suffering from his own share of belief in the alternate reality being peddled by the liberal media.

It's apparent to me that 5 years of successfully thwarting terrorism has made too many of us complacent to the point of idiocy. Terrorism is still a threat, no matter how well we've done in fighting it. It would still be quite easy for a suicide bomber to blow himself up at almost any mall in the nation. Our childish belief that Bush wants to violate our civil rights, which is becoming widespread thanks to the media's drumming the meme for 5 years without let up.

For example, how many Americans has the NSA eavesdropped on? If you've been calling or receiving calls from Al Qaeda, you may raise your hand. Could this power be used improperly? Yes. Is it? No. All government powers are like that. There isn't the slightest evidence that the president's powers have been used for anything other than to pursue and defeat terrorism, but to listen to the media you'd think he was worse than Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and Mussolini combined. But it's all pure alarmism and innuendo. The Democrats want and need a scandal comparable to Monica Lewinsky or Watergate, but all they really have is that Bush is sometimes inarticulate. He's accused of authorizing torture, lying to justify war, and so on ad nauseum, but the record is void of any evidence beyond the claims of terrorists and his political appointees. Nevertheless many of these have entered the public consciousness as fact, when they never have been anything more than hyperbole and speculation.

Someday, this will be examined minutely by non-biased historians and they will wonder what kind of groupthink was controlling us. If the Republicans hold Congress this fall, it will not be due to the truth being spread by the media. It's getting to the point where they're all tabloids, except for The National Enquirer.