Quittin' Time(s)

(h/t Crooks & Liars)

Take it away, Mary Chapin Carpenter

Hey baby tell me what we're gonna do

It's getting crazy and I need some help from you

We were so connected that you were a part of me

Now I feel an emptiness right to the heart of me

But you pretend and I pretend

That everything is fine

And though we should be at an end

It's so hard admittin'

When it's quittin' time...

Yes, MSNBC's two remaining heavy hitters, Lawrence O'Donnell and Rachael Maddow, want to make it very clear that they lurve The New York Times.  

Lurve, lurve, lurve the Times.  Because for people in the media business, New Amsterdam is a small town, and you never know when you're going to need the favor of the dragon on the mountain, so whenever you approach the dragon, 'tis best to first make supplications.  What a mighty tail you have.   And such glossy scales.  And have you done something with your hair?  It seems so bouncy and manageable.  

First, always, declaim your lurve.  Its depth and irreplaceability 

Take it away, Edgar Allan Poe:

I was a child and she was a child,

   In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

   I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

   Coveted her and me.

It's just that, well, sometimes, the Times gets drunk.  After all, it's under a lot of stress and has many mouths to feed.  And when it gets a little drunk, sometimes it gets reckless.  And verbally abusive.  And sometimes -- well, frequently -- it uses the media clout is harvests from its loyal readers like Mr. O'Donnell and Ms. Maddow, to engage in petty, vindictive, democracy-corroding vendettas on the front page the paper.  And because it is the dragon on the mountain, those petty, vindictive, democracy-corroding vendettas tend to get the whole media herd moving in that direction.

Day, after day, after day.

But if we just stick with it.  Praise it.  Laud it.  And then, and only then then, gingerly approach any criticism of its democracy-corroding bad habits with a very long, very soft pair of salad tongs, then maybe it'll change.  Because in there, somewhere, buried beneath all the David Frenches and David Brookses and Bret Stephenses.  Beneath the insipid Aaron Sorkin claptrap and the guest columns routinely tossed out despicable wingnuts like plastic Mardi Gras beads. Beneath all of that and this (from Left Jabs) --

They kicked Joe Biden when he was down. Over seven days, they published 142 news articles and 50 opinion pieces about it. All on the website homepage, all “above the fold.” It was a long scroll before you came to anything else.

 -- surely there is still a great American newspaper in there somewhere.  

And apparently the plan is for all of us to wait around patiently until that newspaper shows up.

I Am The Liberal Media!