Neuticles No More!

Looks like the press has rediscovered its job description. Here's an example of how the Knight-Ridder newspapers provided actual analysis and fact-checking to Bush's recent "I Am Not a Liar" speech on Veteran's Day:

ASSERTION: In his speech, Bush noted that "more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate - who had access to the same intelligence - voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power."

CONTEXT: This isn't true.

Stunning. Instead of the usual he-said-she-said routine, where the newspapers would counter a Republican assertion that the sky is red with a tepid counterpoint that "some Democrats have argued that the sky is, instead, blue in color," we're actually seeing the reporters step up and call out the bullshit for what it is. Sure, it's about four years too late, but I'll take it.

Of course, to preserve the cosmic balance of media whoredom, someone had to pick up the slack. And who better to do that than Bob Woodward, a man who once risked it all to bring Nixon's cover-up of Watergate to light and who now risks it all to keep his own role in the Bush administration's cover-up of Plamegate secret. His full-on descent into administration shill is pathetic, but the writing's been on the wall -- or rather, on the bookstore shelves -- for years.