What Kind of Media Will We Have?

In Salon, Eric Boehlert warns us against getting too excited with the mainstream media's newfound spine.

The fact that this kind of aggressive questioning of people in power during times of crisis now passes as news itself only highlights just how timid the mainstream press corps has been during the Bush years.

It took a critical editorial from the arch-conservative Manchester Union-Leader leading the way before the "liberal media" was willing to take the plunge and criticize the administration response itself. As the shock of the tragedy wears off, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we saw Shepherd Smith, Tim Russert, Paula Zahn, and all the rest go back to their winking and nodding as government officials lie to them. We've already had The Washington Post print a lie from an anonymous administration official that Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco had never declared a state of emergency (which she clearly had the Friday before the storm hit [the link is a PDF file]). This inaccuracy somehow found its way into Newsweek, as well. With FEMA attempting to limit what the press can show and where it can go, we'll see if we maintain this strong, new, take-no-prisoners press corps or if the docile mainstream media we've seen for years never really left after all.