The Mark Halperinization of American Journalism

If you leave out the evil dumbfks who actually run the news business, the worst two things that have happened to American political journalism in the past 30 years are Maureen Dowd and Mark Halperin. Dowd, because of her relentless, obsessive need to take her own galloping Oedipal neuroses for an outing every time there's an election, and Halperin, because he long ago invented the kind of Beltway insidery railbird bullshit that passes today for analysis. (This is, occasionally, referred to as "horse-race journalism," but that's unfair to people like my friend, the great Bill Nack. Actual horse-race journalism will tell you what you need to know about horse racing. The Racing Form will give you more substantive information on the sixth race at Monmouth Park today than Halperin has given you on American politics in the past two decades.) But the worst effect they both have had on the business is the influence their success has had on everyone else. Dowd, at least, can write a little. Most of her imitators can't. And, if it weren't for Halperin and his Drudge-mongering, his link-whoring, and his curious S&M relationship with various talk-radio hosts, there wouldn't be Politico, and, this being the first presidential election of the Politico era, we end up with the thoroughgoing Halperinization of the process, with predictably grim results.

MARK HALPERIN's "Between the Lines," in the forthcoming issue of TIME: "Some Romney advisers sound especially bullish, with one positing that a big win by their side is now more likely than a narrow Obama victory."

Oh, for the love of god, isn't it incumbent upon Halperin to point out to his readers that he knows he's being played here? I know he just adores it when conservatives butch it up on him, so isn't it Politico's job to point out that Halperin is being used to catapult arrant nonsense on behalf of the Romneybot 2.0? The Romney people have a candidate that people seriously despise the more they get to know him. The election is still razorishly close and, more to the point, it's still five months away, more than enough time for people to get to know Willard Romney enough to despise him. The Republican base still thinks he's a cult leader. Otherwise, he's got more advantages than any non-incumbent presidential candidate has had since Jimmy Carter rolled up Gerald Ford, and he still can't break free. I swear, if I were a Romney advisor, I'd sell Mark Halperin some magic beans at a substantially inflated price.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below