Paula Zahn is a Bush proxy...but then, who isn't?

Okay, everyone's taken a hit at Aaron Brown, Wolf Blitzer, et al, of CNN (and rightfully so). But let's also look at Paula Zahn. How this woman can remotely be described as a journalist (my definition requiring a modicum of a show of objectivity) is beyond me. I heard her speak at the Dallas Women's Foundation mid-Clinton administration years, and even the Republicans were disgusted. The DWF invites a distinguished woman to their annual fundraising luncheon (past speakers have included Barbara Jordan, Helen Hayes, Rosalynn Carter, Benazir Bhutto, Tipper Gore, Mary Matalin and her husband James Carville, etc.), but that year they had a hard time booking anyone "distinguished," so they settled for Paula. She delivered an entire speech about her chumminess with Bush 41 and how neat it was to hob-nob with the rich and powerful. Nearly all of us walked out wondering how on earth a journalist could socialize repeatedly with the object of their reporting and still expect to be considered (for lack of a better phrase) "fair and balanced." She was so full of herself, there were few afterwards who were even interested in speaking to her.

But then, Maureen Dowd and Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times have described themselves similarly. And I don't for one moment believe that this is a female thing. Back in college, I was taught that it is a serious mistake for journalists to have personal relationships with the subjects of their reporting, and in fact, outside of political journalism I believe that is still a credo. But in the Beltway, all bets are off. I suppose some journalists would defend this practice by saying that they derive "access" thereby. But with the Bushies, it is well documented that journalists who displease them are denied that very access as punishment. So how are we to trust anything that comes out of their mouths?

I think most of us can agree that it is closer to a case of celebrity worship -- I just don't understand what it is about the Bushes (41 and 43) that makes journalists so eager to embrace them. They sure didn't embrace Bill Clinton, and he had two terms to charm them.