What Liberal Media

Read this story from the most trusted name in news, allegedly about Sen. Reid's backtracking on the FISA bill, and see if you can find any reference to Chris Dodd, his filibuster, and hundreds of thousands of calls and emails and faxes from ordinary citizens.

And this is the print story. On-air I think their top stories all day were an explosion at the Fox News building and something about American Idol dissing Britney.

Meanwhile, at the Washington Post who you expect to get the issue a little better, they at least mention Dodd coming off the campaign trail to filibuster the bill. But they somehow claim that effort "failed" because of the motion to proceed vote (um, the actual filibuster never even started). Then they list a couple meaningless attacks from the Senate Republican's campaign committee and baselessly assert that those attacks are "taking their toll":

Such attacks are taking their toll, Democrats conceded yesterday, as is the full-throated lobbying campaign of telecommunications companies and the Bush administration to protect them from legal challenges. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and some Democrats are struggling to find a compromise, perhaps by substituting the federal government for the phone companies as the defendant in ongoing legal action.

But even opponents of retroactive immunity conceded that the search for compromise could be going nowhere, as the Senate tries to complete its legislative session in the coming days.

"Those like myself, who are against immunity, really don't want to punish the phone companies as much as we want to hold the government accountable," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). "But it's very difficult to do that."

Um, if they were so devastating, do you think that Dodd's effort would have inspired the thousands and thousands of citizen actions on his behalf yesterday? I get that some Democrats like Schumer may be turning to mush, but the small band, the working minority of Constitutional, rule of law progressives, were not cowed by Republican attacks but inspired by them. That's why they won yesterday's first round.

This kind of irresponsible, context-free journalism is what makes it so hard for progressives in the first place. If the people never hear about those who are fighting for them, why would they expect it to be the case?