Wednesday’s London Guardian newspaper carried a full report under the banner heading “Barack Obama battles left and right for debt ceiling agreement,” documenting the manner in which he was playing the role of “mediator in direct talks to prevent government bills going unpaid, interest rates soaring and US stocks plummeting.”[1] The paper then briefed its UK audience on the unfolding political drama in Washington, the detail of which is well known to any political junkie based here in the United States. And buried deep in the article was this comment from Ron Haskins: “the Democratic party on average is further left, and the Republican party on average further right, so they are trying to cut a deal between folks who are more driven by their ideologies and principles.” The Guardian, that is, treated its UK liberal readership to the standard “plague on both their houses” interpretation of what is going on in Washington DC right now – the kind of interpretation David Brooks deploys too[2] – the “ it is all so much more complicated than either pure free-marketeers or simple-minded Keynesians seem to grasp” argument.  In the hands of either Hoskins or Brooks, The Guardian’s interpretation is one designed to make us grateful for the courage and foresight of a centrist political leader who is willing to demand the surrender of sacred cows on both sides of the aisle. It suggests that political division is the main problem in play here, and that rising above politics is its only solution.

Wow! If you care about the media, and specifically the dangers of media concentration, today's news that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is shutting down its News of the World is huge news. The fact I had to use the word "news" four times in a single sentence tells you just how huge.

     It seems the Obama administration may be eager once again to 'give in' to Republican bullying, threats and demands, to 'get a deal' on the debt limit raise and the deficit.  We saw it when he dropped single payer. Again with the Dec. 2010 deal on extending the Bush tax cuts. Obama now may be ready to do what George W. Bush with a Republican Congress was unable to do in 2005.

Children yet, the tale to hear,