Taking It Seriously

When I read the breaking news online Monday morning that Attorney General Gonzales was resigning, I immediately turned on CNN to get the latest on this story. My mistake.

With an exception or two, the newsfolk I saw on CNN in the half hour I watched were snippy, bored, or dismissive. One anchor made repeated comments about how they were supposed to be covering the Michael Vick story, but now would be covering this for a little bit instead (journalism!). But mostly, their crimes were bad reporting.

At no point in the time that I watched did anyone on air explain what the U.S. Attorney scandal was about (the unprecedented firing of prosecutors for partisan reasons, related to schemes to indict Democrats near the midterm election), nor did they acknowledge any of the many other reasons (his key role in the White House's torture policy, warrantless wiretapping, turning the DoJ into a political arm of the Republican party, etc) that lead so many to demand Gonzales' resignation... not the least of which was that he knowingly perjured himself on many of the aforementioned matters. One correspondent dismissed all the scandals as a "pesky" affair.

Instead, they repeated White House talking points about how angry Democrats took down our hapless Attorney General. Several anchors cheerfully retold Gonzales' rags-to-riches story and how he worked so hard to get where he was. Shame that this had to happen.

I didn't even want to know what the Fox News coverage was like.

As we approach what will-- and should be-- the long and serious confirmation hearings to find a new Attorney General, it's important that the media treat this matter seriously... and not as an overblown 'pesky' partisan matter like how the White House wants it to appear. As one blogger notes, Gonzales, "by being so transparently interested only in advancing the interests of George Bush at the expense of the laws he swore to uphold, the Constitution, and the national interest, he deepened cynicism about government at a time when we badly needed leaders worthy of our trust and our confidence."

I know this story isn't as sexy as Michael Vick, but it'd be nice for the media to treat it so.