{"id":35532,"date":"2013-04-05T08:18:42","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T13:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35532"},"modified":"2014-12-12T14:51:22","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T20:51:22","slug":"dana-milbanks-victorian-vapours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35532","title":{"rendered":"Dana Milbank’s Victorian Vapours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dana Milbank reflects the exposed\u00a0id\u00a0<\/em>of the spoiled, cossetted, inside-the-beltway journalist in exactly the same way as Nick Coleman, Doug Grow and Lori Sturdevant do for the self-absorbed, smug Twin Cities journalistic “elite”; all of them wrap a lot of high-minded-sounding wrapping around “being a hack for a party narrative” .<\/p>\n

But a hack is a hack – and Milbank may never have been hackier than in today’s piece about an NRA press conference<\/a>\u00a0which revolved less around reporting and analyzing the news than in comparing it with Milbank’s narrative and, worse, the prejudices he’s accreted on the subject over decades of being an “elite journalist” and damn glad to tell you so.<\/p>\n

But give Milbank this; he doesn’t bury his lede. \u00a0He really, really doesn’t like gunnies (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

The gun-lobby goons<\/strong> were at it again.<\/p>\n

The National Rifle Association\u2019s security guards gained notoriety earlier this year when, escorting NRA officials to a hearing, they were upbraided by Capitol authorities for pushing cameramen. The thugs were back Tuesday when the NRA rolled out its \u201cNational School Shield\u201d \u2014 the gun lobbyists\u2019 plan to get armed guards in public schools \u2014 and this time they were packing heat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

About 20 of them \u2014 roughly one for every three reporters \u2014 fanned out through the National Press Club, some in uniforms with gun holsters exposed, others with earpieces and bulges under their suit jackets.<\/p>\n

In a spectacle that officials at the National Press Club said they had never seen before, the NRA gunmen directed some photographers not to take pictures, ordered reporters out of the lobby when NRA officials passed and inspected reporters\u2019 briefcases before granting them access to the news conference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NRA has been the target of an awful lot of what would be called “hate speech” if directed at any regular schemiel. \u00a0 Death threats have been the least of it, the background noise.<\/p>\n

If a media outlet were the target of this much hatred – whipped up by the likes of Milbank – do you think they might tend to their security?<\/p>\n

Of course they would<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hint: \u00a0Try to walk in to the Washington Post office without an armed security guard giving you a brusque once-over, if you don’t have an employee pass. \u00a0Get back to us.<\/p>\n

It’s The Beltway Way –\u00a0<\/strong>Provinicalism? \u00a0Milbank’s got it!<\/p>\n

By journalistic custom and D.C. law, of course, reporters don\u2019t carry guns to news conferences \u2014 and certainly not when the person at the lectern is the NRA\u2019s Asa Hutchinson, an unremarkable former congressman and Bush administration official whom most reporters couldn\u2019t pick out of a lineup. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, then.<\/p>\n

Let that be a lesson, peasants; your worth is proportional to how much you’ve hobnobbed inside the beltway lately.<\/p>\n

Everything They Need To Know About Policy Analysis, They Learned From Aaron Sorkin<\/strong> – Milbank rattles off the left’s shopping list of shame:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thus has it gone so far in the gun debate in Washington. The legislation is about to be taken up in Congress, but by most accounts the NRA has already won. Plans for limiting assault weapons and ammunition clips are history, and the prospects for meaningful background checks are bleak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch any of Aaron Sorkin’s poli-tainment; “The West Wing” and “The American President”. \u00a0Liberal orthodoxy is always presented, without question, not just as the only rational approach, but the only approach. \u00a0Which is one thing when you’re watching an overhyped TV show. \u00a0It’s another when you’re reading the blithe assumptions of the “elite” media…<\/p>\n

…in this case Milbank, who’s assuming that:<\/p>\n