HOW MANY REPORTERS USE COKE,AND PAY FOR SEX ?

The fourth estate is our eyes and ears.

They are the guardians of our democracy.

But they are all too mortal.

They too have lost there way.

It is time for CHANGE. time for the fourth estate to come clean.

So BEN SMITH be the FIRST to COME CLEAN.

In fact I invite one and all of the members of the Fourth Estate to come clean on Room 8

So Ben it is time to tell the truth, the truth will set you and the others free.

PS.Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of the Fourth Estate, Stone knows.

The response from Ben, in a nutshell: it's just another prosaic political moment, just more grist for the newsmills (Taylor Marsh); and he's still just a negro running for office with negro baggage (Larry Johnson).    

Just more grist, nothing special.  Too bad, maybe you prius-driving latte drinkers liked it, but it's not playing that way.  Get used to it, get cynical with the rest of us.  First, the headlines: you know, the ones that didn't highlight the transcendent themes and focused instead on the politics.  Next, the conservatives: they're not buying it, they've mainly criticized him.  Finally, the blacks: Jesse Jackson liked it, 'nuff said....All the while, for emphasis, Ben keeps cranking the boring old political news cycle: Hillary's italics, Plame's press conference, "Moving on from race," Michigan hubbub, etc etc etc...This is what we'll call the Taylor Marsh strategy.  In her post entitled "Will he Overcome?" Marsh asks (don't you love how they're always 'just asking'):

Is this doozy from yesterday a coming-out of sorts for Ben? 
Have a look for yourself:

 March 11, 2008
Read More: Hillary Clinton

The Clinton bloggers

The Internet, you may have noticed, is Obama country, the Ron Paul folks having more or less melted back into the populace.

Tom Watson, a rare blogger who backs Clinton, has a funny riff on the predicament of his particular minority:

To be a Clinton blogger in the progressive blogosphere is to be hated, shunned, passed without notice in the street. We sit home on Friday nights, cursing at Chris Matthews and being censored by Al Giordano for commenting too often in a field of swaying Obama supplication. We're not welcome at all the best dKos parties - if we show up, we're cursed with the universal epithet of those who challenge the Obama hegemony: "troll," they call us. Sometimes "f'ing troll." We're Rovian in our embrace of the monster, closet Bush backers and much worse - Lieberman types! Oh, the pain. The pure pain. I can't stand it. Makes me want to quit, embrace that messianic goodness, and stand down - for the sake of the party, of course - from any pursuit of a Clinton presidency.

This is the inaugural edition of the BenWatch, a blog devoted to tracking the Pro-Hillary and Anti-Obama slant to Ben Smith's coverage of the Democratic primary at Politico.  

As anyone who's been paying attention will know, Ben clearly has a bias.  This blog aims to: a.) expose that bias for what it is; b.) give other disaffected Politico (an allegedly neutral politcal news outlet that has sponsored a Democratic debate and which has had inredible access to the candidates) readers a place to record grievances; c.) explore the agenda of the center-right Politico.com.

Attentive readers will know that Ben's pieces have the feel of soft-core porn for Hillary (where Larry Johnson and Taylor Marsh would be hard-core).  They will know that Ben broke the incendiary "story" that even Larry Johnson wouldn't break about tenuous connections between Obama and Ayers in Hyde Park. 

FROM FOX NEWS TO BEN SMITH, IT IS TIME THE FOURTH ESTATE COMES CLEAN

Ben Smith is having a mini Hissy Fit. It seems that MR BLOGGER is upset that people are saying mean things about him in the comments section. People feel in is not "FAIR", just like many people feel "FOX NEWS" is not "FAIR" or The New York Times, Washington Post. etc etc etc.

The Fourth Estate and Ben Smith has only themselves to blame.

They need "SUN LIGHT" a national data base of everyone who is part of the Fourth Estate. So the public can see which party they are enrolled in.Who they voted for, How much money they or their partner gave to candidates, or who their partner works for, etc, etc, etc.

The connection between the Yankees and the Bronx Filtration plant is not obvious.  Unless you think about it for about 60 seconds.  The shadow of the Bronx County Democratic Party, its agents, lawyers, etc., are hovering, not even so surreptitiously. What do they stand to gain?  It reminds me of what Plunkett called "honest graft."  Won't some reporter spend some time with this?  Ben:  you couldn't be that busy these days. There's a Pulitzer a-waiting.