Back to the Animal

Boy it has been a while since I read Washington Monthly. I used to read it along with Atrios daily. However, something along the way (perhaps the inclination to read massive quantities of blogs to see what is really going on started taking away from the Political Animal time I had. Since mostly everything that Kevin Drum loads up onto the site is pretty dead on, it usually gets talked about on other blogs. However, this post by guest Michael Hiltzik reminds me of why the Animal is so damned good. Its the writting. Plain and simple, Kevin Drum writes great stuff, and anybody he lets take a brain dump on the site must pass through a vetting process that far surpasses that of the White House, cuz every single person on there writes excellently.

So I think its about time I get back to reading the Animal on the daily . Even if some of the stuff gets repeated around the sphere, its probably gonna be more fun to read, if not more informative and insightful than anywhere else.

However, to begin, you all should read the Hiltzik piece. Cuz ultimately, regardless of outcome of rove/plame/reporter gate, this ideda about anonymous sources needs to be debated and perhaps refurbished a bit. Honestly, Hiltzik gets it right when he says:

What’s the case for offering the subject of news coverage blanket anonymity to discuss his own actions and motivations? Shouldn’t it be presumed that he will seize the opportunity to spin, insulated from the consequences, rather than to provide you with useful information (i.e., news)?

As the Instapunk would put it, heh Indeed!