McCain and Palin are Laughing at the Press -- and it's the Press' Fault

Instead of recoiling from the media fact-checking, the Republicans have adopted a post-press approach and simply don't care what the press does or says about their honesty. More to the point, the candidates don't think it will matter on Election Day.

They may be right. And that's the media's fault. Journalists have reported their way right into the margins. Submerged in trivia and tactics for the past 18 months, the press has damaged its ability -- its authority -- to referee the campaign. How? The press has consciously folded its work into the larger entertainment culture.

Honestly, do voters really (I mean really) see that big of a difference between reading about Sarah Palin in People and reading about her in Newsweek, whose 2008 campaign coverage often has been driven by an open, breathless embrace of celebrity and entertainment? I'm not so sure voters do.

Read the full Media Matters column here.