Bashing Bush is Media's Job

At least they admit it:

Newsweek magazine assistant managing editor and noted author Evan Thomas was asked on a local Washington TV program the other day whether the media has been bashing the president unfairly. His response — "our job is to bash the president. That's what we do." He went on to say that the President had lost support after he "kissed off the Iraq Study Group."

Thomas in the past has acknowledged the media has a bias in its reporting — saying the press favored John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. His comments over the weekend followed an assertion by National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg — that the president had received a "free ride" for years, and now is getting fierce coverage.

The media thinks that commissions like the Iraq Study Group or the 9/11 Commission write their reports on stone tablets and hand them down from smoking mountains. Therefore, the president must not act against their will. When the president decides to use his perogative and take from the reports what he wants and ignore what he wants, it drives the press crazy.

You can understand their frustration, but the idea that the president has been getting a free ride from the press is laughable.