Three Bulls!

Ezra Klein dares the world to invite him to a delicious and exclusive endless brunch here.

Noted extreme hippie media outsider Matthew Yglesias¹ discusses the entirely non-controversial (in that such things exist yet controversial in practice as to how they might represent an ethical breach of some proposed journalistic contract with readers) topic of loin throbbery fluffernutter OMG teh awesome profiles in courage for various politicos. Alternately space-filling and general interest, these pieces could also grease the wheels for subsequent reportorial access.

Anyhow, Matt takes a certain approach in suggesting they be called when they are considered to be. I would go further, further than my navel at least, and suggest that if access becomes so important that it can never be compromised, then it is only useful in the same way that secrets are attractive for a few to know- exaggerating the self-importance of the knower. It is like the insatiable need for the hipster to hear the leaked next-best-thing album before anyone else, except hipsters would at least blab about it because they want the world to know what they know. Actually, it is like if the hipsters are also writing a book. So they’ll keep it secret until the book comes out and we can all laugh at the good times we missed.

Except we find that Ezra disagrees with this:

I’m not sure this is quite as calculated as Matt implies. New administrations tend to spark a lot of positive profiles because new administrations usher in new players whose power merits attention but who are relatively unknown to the public. The profiles tend to be positive because, well, the players haven’t done anything yet and the young president is broadly liked. And when they end, the reporters have the subject’s e-mail address and something of a personal relationship.

Emphasis mine. I think Bob Somerby’s head just exploded into the 8th dimension. Like Red Lectroid and everything. If there’s anything we know about political players, they emerge fully formed from nothing at the microsecond President Beefshorts is inaugurated. Like Vice President Cheney for example. Of course the profiles have a purpose for the reporter and of course they are useful as a way of introduction between the reporter and the staff member in question. For example, the reporter certainly wouldn’t be treated to cushy planted leaks from Undersecretary Nancy Hitler McTilla Borgia Deathsquad if a reporter included in a profile certain unsavory events- and that would be a very bad thing™.

Continuing:

An example of this was Anne Kornblut’s profile of Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina. You could see it as a beat sweetener: A positive, light piece about a key inside player. It even involved a videotaped interview about the hard hours and the difficulty of multitasking. Anne Kornblut is almost certainly more likely to receive a return e-mail from Messina having written it. But it was also a legitimate piece. Messina was worth introducing the The Washington Post’s readership. It was useful to know more about his “father and son” like relationship with Baucus and his role as administration “fixer.” And I think that’s the truth of most beat sweeteners: They’re legitimate profiles with positive side effects.

Good ol’ Kornblut.

So this post goes as far as to claim that “beat sweeteners” don’t actually exist citing one example of a possibly useful profile. Atrios chimes in with a reasonable case, although as a well-known internet scold, I would have appreciated it more if he wrote “Ezra Klein, I don’t agree with you.”

I understand it makes it a lot harder to write a best-selling exposé without access to hoard for a book but the term moral hazard floats around a lot, and I would suggest it has its place here as well. If your reporting will be altered by a book you are choosing to write, maybe you shouldn’t write your book.

With Ezra, though, I think the late Tim Russert agrees (off the record) and likewise our thoughts turn to the turning of the aspens.

1. Not so much [back]