The hubbub and the rub

I'll cut to the chase: I totally agree with Howard Kurtz. This hardly ever happens, because Kurtz and I have different views on how the press fits into the mold of society. Now, with a Republican White House, Congress and a conservative chief justice on the Supreme Court, we are left with little wonder on how all those nifty checks and balances on government are working. Right now, I think that the press is keeping American from becoming despotic. As Kurtz says:

But it does seem to me that news organizations are filling a vacuum left by an almost total lack of oversight by congressional Republicans since Bush took office (not just on national security matters but on Hurricane Katrina and a host of other issues). And perhaps leakers of sensitive information, in this environment, are more likely to give it to reporters than to Hill committees that have displayed little or no interest in investigating the Bush administration. Of course, if some Hill committees were more aggressive in oversight, they might leak some of their evidence to the press to get more bang for the buck.

And there you have it.