On any given day, owing to tight budgets, the evasiveness of those we cover, and the generally (sorry … ) lazy nature of some reporters, way too much of what gets covered in politics and government are the spoon-fed public events that the communications staffs want covered.
Even "enterprise" and investigative stories tend these days to come not from innovative shoe-leather work, but rather are generated (and often thoroughly researched by) interest groups, political actors, and other non-journalists who want to see a story come out.
For instance, journalists are now routinely relying on the Republican National Committee's missed vote tallies of the Democratic presidential candidates in stories about the subject, as opposed to keeping the records ourselves.
And we bet in almost every instance when the RNC numbers are used, there's no checking to make sure the tallies are correct.
On any given day when the Congress is out of session, how many reporters know what the Members they are assigned to cover are doing? ... [F]or every newsworthy evasive action we learn about (because the press gets tipped off or stumbles into something or finds something through hard work), there are literally thousands that never come to light.
Not that we didn't know the news was spoon-fed, but it's good to hear it said in the mainstream. Up with ABC! Down with Faux!