Saturday, December 21, 2019

Ambition?

It's been suggested that Biden was far from the only one with his snout in the Ukranian trough. That might help explain a curious aspect or two of the impeachment. Much though the media dislike revealing things that would taint their heroes(*), Trump is capable of making sure that details come out anyway. This could bring several influential Democrats down--and probably several Republicans as well. That creates vacancy and opportunity for ambitious young Democrats. The impeachment was something none of the Democrats could oppose, but perhaps the Ukrainian connection means some of the older ones would not be averse to delay or a rapid, skeleton-free, acquittal that they could blame on Republican partisanship. Conviction was never in the cards.

(*) This "selective honesty" isn't a recent failing--newspapers have been deeply partisan for all our history.

1 comment:

J Melcher said...

"newspapers have been deeply partisan for all our history"

Remember the play "The Front Page" or the movie "His Girl Friday"? A city with six or so newspapers all covering the same big news story:

One paper kept tying the news (a fairly routine criminal execution) into calls to join the coming Communist Revolution. Another kept tying the news into warnings AGAINST the coming Communist Revolution. Another kept tying the news into mockery of conspiracy theorists who believed all that rot about the 'Communist Revolution' ... One paper tied each breaking event into a continuing tale of how the nepot Sheriff was filling county staff positions with relatives. Another wanted to ignore the story in favor of poetry. All invented and agreed upon a story of romance between the felon and a girl in the apartment downstairs.

The problem with modern news isn't partisan bias so much as it is monopoly.