Newsweak is feeling lonely

I was offended, but hardly surprised, when I saw Newsweak's latest offering regarding the President. This time, it's a cover story touting him as someone living in a bubble utterly disconnected from the world, primarily because he hasn't been very welcoming to the increasingly disconnected Murtha, nor to the invariably hostile press. Brent Bozell, with enjoyable verve, takes the Newsweak article apart:

It's not just Murtha, but the media themselves who are feeling un-consulted. One of the things know-it-all reporters like to do is advise the powerful. A politician can attract good press by taking his press corps and pretending to make them his corps of advisers, noodling over their grand ideas for governance. Look no further than John McCain. Back in 1999, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter professed love for McCain because he returned calls: "Reporters can be bought cheap with a little cooperation when we need it. For years, McCain has reliably returned press calls with a candid line or two." McCain indulged their pushy adviser impulses, as Slate's Jacob Weisberg praised McCain's willingness to listen to his school-voucher ideas: "When McCain flatters you, it doesn't feel automatic or calculated. He truly likes us journalists." In the end, however, all it got McCain was loving articles. Bush became president.

Read the rest here.