Fluff journalism

Carol Costello interviewing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. An example of how the media are letting us down.



Kay Bailey Hutchinson:

"The things the Democrats are pushing right now are really beyond what I think is reasonable. We're all against violence against women, and we have supported that unanimously in the past, but then they throw up a bill that they put other things in that are not central to that point and then they say its a war against women if you don't support every part of it. That's the kind of thing that we're tired of. We understand it; the American people are smarter than that and women are smarter than that. We can make the judgements on the issues that count and it is the economy and the lack of job creation in the private sector that is our problem right now and that's what we ought to be taking about."   

Carol Costello: [Ignoring opportunities 1) to ask Sen. Hutchinson to clarify which bill she was referring to 2) to identify which provisions she considered so egregious that they were 'show stoppers', 3) to ask if it is unusual for bills to come before Congress with provisions unrelated to the substantive motion, 4) to question her on the topic she herself said we should be talking about namely private sector job creation (which is positive - though jobs are being lost in the public sector; teachers, fire fighters, police. Instead of which, Costello moves on to the next scripted question:]

"You know, during the heat of the primary, the issue of contraception came up..."

So after listing to that, are we really any the wiser...