Washington blame game…

Battle of the Bubble-heads (washingtonpost.com) Media Notes by Howard Kurtz. Today’s column considers the “permanent political fixture” called “the blame game,” in which it’s “hard to fix problems, easier to fix political responsibility.” I would argue it’s hard to fix political responsibility, but then I’d be talking about something as complicated as fixing problems…but never mind. What I find a little irksome about Kurtz’s column today is that he doesn’t acknowledge journalism’s role in creating the kind communications environment that encourages blame as an effective political tactic. Now blame as a tactic is as old as democracy; just ask the ancient Greeks. The difference today is that the news media, by focusing on drama, encourages political finger pointing over reasoned discourse. And it convinces citizens that such finger pointing is news.