If you believe that reporters need to play it straight with their reporting and pundits have an obligation to rise above cheap disdain toward those with whom they disagree, you can only shake your head at MSNBC's coverage of the immigration policy debate.
From Chuck Todd's reporting on the work of the Gang of Eight, to investigative reporter Michael Isikoff's hit-piece on Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, to Lawrence O'Donnell's suggestion that there is a movement to end immigration, MSNBC has gone all in with the Obama administration's push for "comprehensive immigration reform". While pretending to lean forward, the crew has gone over the cliff.
That is why I'm grateful to President Obama for this deadpan observation in his remarks at Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Said the president, " David Axelrod now works for MSNBC, which is a nice change of pace since MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod."
"A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth", journalist Michael Kinsley famously said. As the president's joke demonstrated, a joke can fill the same role.
