Ana Marie Cox and the Journalistic Rat Pack

By Farol and Quill

In a recent bloggingheads.com video, Glenn Greenwald and Time.com journalist Ana Marie Cox debated whether or not hobknobbing with politicians and public figures they cover skewes the way in which journalists portray their hosts in the national media.

Take, for example, the now infamous video of the press party at John McCain´s ranch in Sedona, Arizona. His daughter Meghan, the videographer, croons over how ¨the guys from the Politico brought my mom flowers¨ while McCain himself serves up some reportedly very juicy ribs.

Now consider for a moment the kind of coverage John McCain receives in the media. From the Washington Post story on the press party:

If he loses the presidency, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will have a career as a barbecue chef
to fall back on.
At his weekend cabin just outside Sedona on Sunday
afternoon, McCain took a break from campaigning and grilled ribs and chicken for
three dozen reporters, some staff members and a few Republican friends from the
Senate.
Dressed in jeans, an L.L. Bean baseball cap, sunglasses and a sweat shirt featuring a
picture of his family, McCain held court the way he does almost daily aboard his
"Straight Talk Express" bus.

This is entirely representative of the coverage McCain typically receives. He's portrayed as the honest, "straight-talking", manly-man centrist, while Obama is the effeminate weakling who can't bowl, and Hillary is the cold, calculating bitch.

Yet, in the bloggingheads dialogue, Cox goes to the utmost lengths to defend both McCain and the conduct of her peers. She repeatedly - absurdly - insists that socializing with the people you're assigned to cover doesn't make you any less willing to ask them tough questions. Then, at about the 25-minute mark, Greenwald mentions the media's recent half-assed coverage of McCain's blatantly false statements regarding the relationship between Iran and Al-Qaeda, and he demonstrates fairly conclusively that a bias exists in McCain's favor. Cox, who seems visibly subdued, provides no meaningful rejoinder; instead, she changes the subject to how bloggers are making her job difficult (boo-hoo).

Indeed, one of the most telling moments in the video occurs when Cox states that she isn't afraid of being wrong - just of people not listening to her. We think it's fair to conclude that Cox inadvertently reveals that the pack mentality that plagues all journalism - but particularly campaign coverage - in the establishment press is actually the result of the insecurities of the journalists themselves. They want to be recognized, thought of as powerful, and those who bestow favors on them are in turn viewed favorably.