Swampland - TIME.com

A question for Glenn Greenwald

I don't understand this. Is he saying that people like Broder and Ron Brownstein and me shouldn't talk to people outside the Beltway?

Look, the blogospheric media critics have served a valuable function at times, and at other times it's just vitriol for vitriol's sake. I thought an essential part of the critique was that some of us are out of touch with reality...but now Greenwald is saying that any efforts to actually report what's going on outside the Beltway are bad, too?

I'm not endorsing everything Broder writes. I've disagreed with his recent opinings about a Bush comeback. But there really is a bright line between those who make the effort to report and those who don't. Broder makes the effort, even now, at an age when many pundits have retreated into armchair columny.

Update: Several readers and also Greenwald seem to be conflating Broder's DC columns, which are fair game, and his lifelong history of going outside the Beltway to report. I don't think Broder would argue that his columns about Bush and Reid (another one I disagreed with) directly reflect What The People Think...but I do think his heritage of reporting influences his worldview, just as the time I've spent in the middle east affects the Washington-based columns I write about middle east policy.
Again, it's perfectly appropriate for Greenwald to attack Broder's opinions or mine...but he seems to be attacking the very act of reporting in this post, which is wrong.

Update: Here's Glenn Greenwald's response to my post. As I say above, Greenwald and I are in agreement on columnists who don't go out and report...but I'm wondering where the evidence is that when Broder goes out, he's only talking to people who worship at his shrine or agree with him? In my experience, most of the people I talk to have absolutely no idea who I am, not just on the trail, but especially when I spend time in poor neighborhoods or overseas (an exception is when I go out and cover a Congressional race in, say, Greenwich, Ct.) . Again, I've often said that the blogosphere can be a necessary corrective to sloppy punditry--I've been happy to admit it when I was wrong and willing to defend my position when I disagree with the criticism--but I think the broadbrush attacks on Beltway pundits as a class is also sloppy and quite useless when unaccompanied by details. For the record, I don't consider Broder, or any other journalist, the Voice of the People. But it would be nice if Greenwald could point out an instance where Broder's outside the beltway reporting was defective.


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About Swampland

Ana Marie Cox

Ana Marie Cox is the founding editor of Wonkette and the author of the novel Dog Days. Read more

Joe Klein

Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. His weekly TIME column, "In the Arena," covers national and international affairs. In 2004 he won the National Headliner Award for best magazine column. Read more

Karen Tumulty

Senior Writer Karen Tumulty has been TIME's National Political Correspondent since 2001, and has also covered the White House and Congress for the magazine. A native of San Antonio, she is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Business School, where her career choice has significantly lowered the average salary of her graduating class. But she gets lots of free magazines. Read more

Jay Carney

Jay Carney is TIME's Washington bureau chief. He has covered both the Clinton and Bush 43 White Houses, as well as Congress. Before coming to Washington, he spent three years reporting from TIME's Moscow bureau. In his next life, he would like to write for Sports Illustrated. Read more

Jay Newton-Small

Jay Newton-Small Jay Newton-Small covers politics for TIME. She has covered the Bush 43 White House and also Congress from the DeLay era to the present. And, yes, despite the misleading name SHE is a she. Read more

Michael Scherer

Michael Scherer is a correspondent in TIME's Washington bureau covering the 2008 presidential campaign. He has worked national assignments for Mother Jones magazine and Salon.com. Read more

Mike Murphy

Mike Murphy is a political consultant who helped elect more than a dozen GOP Senators and Governors including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney. In 2000, Murphy was a senior strategist for John McCain's presidential campaign. Read more

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