From Carol Marin at the Chicago Sun-Times:

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.

We reporters have earned our own membership in the Bizarro universe.

Who are we, after all? The ones rapid-firing at Rod Blagojevich with tough questions until we drive him from the room? Or the Miss Manners crowd, silent until called upon, quietly accepting that only a handful of questions will be taken at a time?

Frankly? You are both. And which person of interest gets the hard questions and which gets the softballs depends primarily upon their party affiliation AND/OR said person's effect on the agenda of that party.

Aaaaah, but Blogojevich is a Democrat, you say!

Not even a good try.

The only...ONLY...reason Blagojevich is getting the rough treatment from the press is because his activities are kicking mud up onto their anointed savior, the President-Elect. Charles Rangel is hip-deep on an elephant in financial scandals of different varieties (pay for play, tax fraud...you name it) and not only is the press generally uninterested, the Democrat controlled House won't pursue any meaningful investigation of Rangel's illegal and fraudulent activities. Worse still, they have rescinded the term limits that would have removed this weapons-grade crook from his Chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee with no action required.

Press Reaction: Move along. Nothing to see here.

Chicago and its political mores are well-known to the point that "Chicago Politics" is a punch line to almost any discussion concerning crooked office-holders. Which is precisely why the mainstream Press didn't send anyone to Chicago to dig for dirt before the election. Wasilla, Alaska, was not spared so. There was a reporter in every dumpster...alive, unfortunately...within six blocks of the Palin household searching for any morsel of a scandal that could be tied to a candidate whose chief "failing" (at least theoretically) was that she was inexperienced.

The now clearly insane Andrew Sullivan still clutches to the theory that Trig Palin is actually the son of Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol. Yes, the Bristol Palin that just had a baby the other day....only 8 or so months after the birth of Trig. And the Atlantic Monthly still pays him to do this kind of work.

So while the press turns Alaska upside down looking for any hint of.....um....inexperience, they don't show up in Chicago at all before the election and are only there now because Blagojevich is doing damage to the party and to Barack Obama's image and he must be destroyed.

The mainstream press is completely in the tank for the *cough* progressive agenda in general and the Democrat party in particular. They are not even in denial about that anymore.

Which is not to say that they are no longer in denial of some sort.

Now what the Mainstream Press has deluded themselves into thinking is that their lack of objectivity combined with their ever-decreasing work ethic, overall writing and reporting skills, and their total dearth of knowledge in any area outside of the daily operations of a media outfit isn't what is causing them to go broke at break-neck speed.

It is because of the internet.....or because their readers are failing them. Or something.

It just can't be that the product is defective.