THE PRESS AS CHUMPS

(Via Atrios) Matt Stoller tries to explain the GOP's attitude toward the press and this one line sums it up for me:

They will lie to you because you don't matter to them.

Even the Wall Street Journal can support that claim:

A WHITE HOUSE AIDE who had told me one thing on the record a few weeks ago tried to persuade me over the weekend, not for attribution, that the opposite was true. I protested. His reply: "Why would I lie? Because that's what I'm supposed to do. Lying to the press doesn't prick anyone's conscience."

Capital: The Downsides of Loyalty and Discipline
By David Wessel. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Dec
12, 2002. pg. A.2