the press and the powerful

Glen discusses a recent episode of Tucker Carlson -- and god, do I not envy him for having to watch that ass as part of his job -- in which the Scotsman reporter involved in the Powers controversy ("Hillary Clinton's a Monster") discusses journalistic standards. Glen quotes:

CARLSON: What -- she wanted it off the record. Typically, the arrangement is if someone you're interviewing wants a quote off the record, you give it to them off the record. Why didn't you do that?

PEEV: Are you really that acquiescent in the United States? In the United Kingdom, journalists believe that on or off the record is a principle that's decided ahead of the interview. If a figure in public life.

CARLSON: Right.

PEEV: Someone who's ostensibly going to be an advisor to the man who could be the most powerful politician in the world, if she makes a comment and decides it's a bit too controversial and wants to withdraw it immediately after, unfortunately if the interview is on the record, it has to go ahead.

CARLSON: Right. Well, it's a little.

PEEV: I didn't set out in any way, shape.

CARLSON: Right. But I mean, since journalistic standards in Great Britain are so much dramatically lower than they are here, it's a little much being lectured on journalistic ethics by a reporter from the "Scotsman," but I wonder if you could just explain what you think the effect is on the relationship between the press and the powerful. People don't talk to you when you go out of your way to hurt them as you did in this piece.

Don't you think that hurts the rest of us in our effort to get to the truth from the principals in these campaigns?

PEEV: If this is the first time that candid remarks have been published about what one campaign team thinks of the other candidate, then I would argue that your journalists aren't doing a very good job of getting to the truth.

Glen goes on to discuss the horrors of a quiescent American press, and includes some awesome links to interviews British journalists have done with government figures on both sides of the Atlantic.

Regarding the Powers problem itself, Kevin Drum and Matt Yglesias said basically exactly what I would. Sucks that the Clintons are playing into fake outrage games, that the media is playing along, and that a brilliant democratic voice on foreign policy has been driven out of politics. (Yeah, she should have had a bit more restraint. But get over it Hillary... if you don't want to be called a monster, don't be a monster. I thought we were supposed to admire your dirty fighting and vote for you because of it? Oh well.)