Jim Lehrer: Forewarned

Hugh Hewitt cites recent polls showing Bush gaining strength as reason for concern that a desperate Kerry might pull a stunt of some sort.

"When Kerry tries a stunt and Lehrer let's it pass or abets it, watch the blogosphere turn on Lehrer and the PBS brand he carries. As I wrote yesterday, this is the first debate to be blogged, and Lehrer could be next week's Dan Rather with any sort of performance that smacks of a Kerry bias. The vulnerability of the PBS 'network' to internet activism is huge, given the overwhelming importance of a handful of stations that must be responsive to public outrage because of the ever-present fundraising appeals."

As always, Hugh's right on target. Remember, too, that this is the same Jim Lehrer who blinked as Bill Clinton lied to his face about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky (he misled Lehrer by using the present tense -- something he admited to Lehrer this summer).

It's not that most of us, I suspect, see Jim Lehrer as a conniving partisan determined to lie, cheat, or steal in order to harm the President. It's that his brand of liberalism -- the old, stuffy, sanctimonious form one associates with Adlai Stevenson -- allows its practitioners to remain unaware of their biases. It's a faux cerebral liberalism that could once be passed off as a high-minded, superior form of being there. That's why losing wasn't a sign of rejection; indeed, it was a sign of victory, of virtue, of truth.

But, as Hugh has also noted, today we have easy access to legions of brainy types who don't need the imprimatur of media high-priests to disseminate the results of their research far and wide. Calling a spade a spade is much easier than it used to be, as it seeing straight through to the core of those keepers of the MSM flame. It's a whole lot easier to get burned these days.