... Andrew Breitbart is a conservative... and Matt Drudge protégé. Lately, he has distributed a series of videos... in which the duo visits various ACORN offices with a hidden camera, pretending to be a pimp and prostitute seeking advice on setting up a brothel. Full Story »
Posted by Patricia L'Herrou - via Slate , Tom Friedman
Shafer's argument is one worth considering, but his presentation in this piece is tactless. Lots of Slate's columnists tend to push ideas to the point of hyperbole -- I suppose to try and come off as edgier than the next pundit -- and Shafer plays right into the trend here. He should know better than to call Breitbart an "outsider," for one. And although he notes the crudeness of the Breitbart's sting operation, he exaggerates the ripple effect it's had on other news outlets. His best insight in this story is his claim that ideology can be a fine motivator for reporting. Too many journalists are afraid to admit this -- as long as it doesn't affect *how* a journalist reports a story, there's no threat. Right?
That Breitbart comes swinging a political ax should bother nobody, unless the journalism published in Mother Jones, The Nation, the Huffington Post, Salon, the New Republic, the American Prospect, Reason, the Weekly Standard, or the National Review gives them similar fits. Viewing the world through an ideological lens can sometimes help a journalist to discover a story.
