Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Thomas Edsall Version)

Matt Stoller is unhappy with Thomas Edsall:

MyDD :: Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics: I've met Tom Edsall a few times.... I remember one time in particular at a press conference with Howard Dean; he pushed to get Dean to answer a question about Hillary Clinton, which of course Dean would not. This was just after Seymour Hersh had come out with an article about how the US was planning for a nuclear attack on Iran. I decided to ask Edsall about this scenario. Edsall said that he believes that we were going to nuke that country, and I asked him if he thought that might not be more important than trying to get Dean to slip up on Hillary. Edsall just sort of shrugged his shoulders, and said that it's not his responsibility to focus on that story because he's not an editor of the paper and doesn't make the choices about what to cover....

[I]f you need evidence that journalists in DC adopt the biases of their sources and eagerly sop up conventional wisdom, you need go no further than Edsall. Look at who he doesn't like in this article - pro-choice groups, unions, and minority rights groups.... Edsall of course didn't talk to a janitor who just got a raise in Houston, he didn't talk to a Goodyear worker losing his job, or a displaced New Orleans resident, or a NJ retiree with good pension and benefits because of his union. Edsall talked to his friends, and his friends know, they just know, how important better parking spots are. To these people, knocking labor unions just feels so right, doesn't it?...

[I]n Edsall's world, corporate media barons are part of the coalition of 'dominant', and unions are not. So even though the Republican Party was soundly repudiated at the polls in favor of a strongly populist Democratic Party backed by labor, and a touchstone abortion ban was popularly rejected in one of the reddest states in the country, Democrats have no choice but to reject unions and pro-choice groups, or they will face judgment at the polls...