Good Guys, Bad Guys

There are reasons - probably usually gross but maybe occasionally not - that we have to be jolly old pals with some bad countries. Even gross reasons are reasons. But the degree to which the press - and no, not just the opinion pages - falls in line with official government policy about Whoever Is Good And Bad Today - is always pretty fascinating. One would think the press (and I mean the elite press like the Times and the especially the NoVa mouthpiece the Post) could at least explain these things to us. The State Department might not be able to come out and say "sure, he's a bastard, but he's our bastard" but journalists can. Instead we tend to get a good dictator/bad dictator split coverage. The good ones are our good pals, the bad ones do truly horrible and despicable human rights violations just like the good ones.