Eat The Press

Eric Boehlert Hates The Note

Washington Monthly |  Eric Boehlert |  Posted Thursday June 22, 2006 at 11:21 AM

Eric Boehlert attacks ABC's "The Note," the daily inside-baseball political tip sheet: "In theory, what drives The Note is anything that's generating Beltway buzz... Too often, though, The Note's definition of buzz has been whatever Beltway Republicans are chattering about. The Note has been nourished on an era of total Republican rule. It shows." Boehlert leads off with a pretty telling example of the trial of Democrat-related David Rosen, which The Note hyped and hyped until the verdict was handed down - not guilty, and, funnily enough, not Noted.

Boehlert also criticizes the in-jokey tone and "hard-to-decipher references to up their hip insider quotient"; in this respect, he joins Wonkette, whose feature on "Decoding The Note" makes fun of precisely that. Boehlert is also troubled by the "egregious stroking of the press" (ditto Wonkette here) and is even more troubled by evidence that it is "enamored of GOP talking points." As for WaPo's Dan Froomkin, he's washed his hands of it:

I'm not exactly a dues paying member of what the Note so annoyingly calls the "Gang of 500," but my sense is that it has gone from "must-read" status to "can't-read" has-been. Not only is it increasingly impenetrable, uninsightful and turgid, but I personally have zero tolerance for a supposed journalistic product that tries to fool its readers into believing its poor attempts at fiction are true. Ever.

Disclaimer: One of these "poor attempts at fiction" was sent out as bona fide news by an ABC publicist and briefly appeared on the HuffPo site: see here.

Further Disclaimer: Also, ETP receives the Note email every morning, but almost never reads it because instead of emailing the morning's column, they send this: "Good Morning! The Note Is Ready" with a link but no substance. People, that extra mouse-click makes the difference.