But I think it’s also something else less obvious but more obnoxious. It’s treating the press as if the press were just another interest group, like the Humane Society or Girl Scouts, and no more important than any other group.

If this is true (and I think it is), and if it develops, it signals a fundamental and negative change in political regard for the public right to know.

The unwritten but very real watchdog role of the press, all but abdicated by the press itself since the early 90s (or before), is perhaps the only bulwark the public has against the overweening greed and self-interest that characterize much of public service today, and which succeeds by not being exposed.

Just as the rabbis in New York yesterday displayed an ineffable arrogance toward representative American government, this growing new treatment of the press, and Bachmann and Angle themselves, suggest an hostility to public knowledge that is even more dangerous to the country than their election.

Pathetic dodges or complaining that the press is picking on them is weak and cowardly.
And our nation could never afford weak and cowardly leadership.
It’s quite apparent that putting one’s religious beliefs and affiliations in front as if a sufficient show of character is a bad move. Even THAT doesn’t imbue anyone with courage, smarts or virtue.