ThinkProgress' final entry in its live-blogging of last night's Republican convention is, thanks to CNN's Erin Burnett, hilariously revealing of just how awful political reporting has become:
[Ann Romney's] speech was just one of the many memorable moments and I have to say this Wolf, when he came out and her talking about the love for [Mitt], I had a tear in my eye and I think a lot of people did.
One can't even parody that. Of course she said it on CNN, so no one was watching but ThinkProgress' monitor. Still ...
Fox News? It's more than mere parody; it's a doppelgänger of the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda. I'll pass. Mass hypnosis isn't my thing. OK well what about MSNBC's coverage? Four words: Tom Brokaw, Ed Schultz. Being whiplashed from the conventionally cretinous to the hysterically panicked is more than my already palsied mental state can handle. I don't know. Maybe MSNBC absented at least Brokaw last night. But having watched the network's comically plate-spinning and seemingly ubiquitous Michael Steele earlier in the day, I figured I'd get hit by one clown's pies or the other's. Better to play it safe and avoid the whole scene.
So much for the cable news networks. That leaves us with PBS' coverage, which is rather a tragic story itself, in that PBS is statutorily subject to political intimidation and thus exhibits an overwrought composure impervious to even decent outrage. I can just barely imagine the horror-struck visages of PBS producers confronting the guest-hosted convention coverage of an hysterical Ed Schultz. Somewhere, there's a balance, but it sure as hell ain't on TV.