I agree with you that we need to call our politicians on lies, but I think the media, bloggers etc, have gone way too far with this. Andrew Sullivan’s posts on Palins lies are ok, as they expose real lies. Whoever called Hillary Clinton on her lie about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia did a good job, too. I think that we’ve gone too far to toward the “gotcha side,” away from the real investigative, issue based journalism.

Your second point about flip flopping is the point I was trying to make with my post, but you said it better than I did. I’m more wondering if our generation will start to be less influenced by those types of stories, rather than if journalists will write less about these stories.

I think my main problem is that gotcha journalism has replaced pure investigative journalism. Imagine of Watergate were happening now. I think the media would focus on the personal “gotchas” rather than the bigger story like Woodward and Bernstein did.

You said it best in your last paragraph: Let’s focus on creating a world where such ramblings fall on deaf ears and don’t ruin our appetite for necessary investigative (and even “gotcha”) journalism.

I’m with you.

Anyway, I don’t like gotcha journalism, but I think it serves a purpose. Sometimes people deserve to be “got”. Can it get out of control? Yes. But if we start to disqualify people for public office solely because of some boozy college party photo, the story reflects the petty sensitivities of the populace more than it does the pettiness of the shock journalist who ran the piece.

To take an example you referenced, a “flip-flopping” record is only relevant dirt on someone if the people are already ready to believe that mind-changing is a sign of weakness. If this is really how people feel, or are ready to feel that way when told to by a political party, then we have much more to worry about than journalists who report on rhetorical inconsistencies.

Essentially, my viewpoint is just as cynical, but from a different perspective. I think we need iconoclastic journalists like Christopher Hitchens, for example, who can dig up decades-old dirt on guys like Henry Kissinger because sometimes leaders really do need to be kept in check. During the last election when both candidates were fawning over Henry Kissinger to gain his approval, it’s good to have someone step in and say, “hey, this is a war criminal you’re holding up as a paragon of sound foreign policy.” It might seem like a dramatic statement, and to some an outrageous one, but if backed up with facts, it’s an important point to make–even if it is technically gotcha journalism.

The venom-spitting blogger can talk all he wants about Obama and his 57 states. Let’s focus on creating a world where such ramblings fall on deaf ears and don’t ruin our appetite for necessary investigative (and even “gotcha”) journalism.