Ah, our mass media, particularly the AP. They never fail to disappoint.
Check out how AP and Reuters both headline and lede their stories on Gonzales at the House today...
Yes, I'd expect the more liberal bloggers to cover it with a bit more of an adversarial tone than mass media, but at times it's like the wire service reporters watched a different hearing than the one I kept abreast of from the blogging of it all day, mainly at TPM.
The headlines and lede paragraphs after the jump....
First, from the AP (as presented on Yahoo's news page) -
Gonzales deflects Democrats' criticism
BY LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confidently deflected House Democrats' demands Thursday for details in the firings of U.S. attorneys, appearing ever more likely to survive accusations that the dismissals were politically motivated.
Republican lawmakers rushed to Gonzales' defense as the attorney general denied anew that the firings last year were improper.
The mostly muted five-hour hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee was a sharp contrast to Gonzales' sometimes testy appearance three weeks ago when Senate Republicans questioned his competence to run the Justice Department. One senator at that session joined a small GOP chorus saying he should step down.
Next, Reuters...
Gonzales endures another grilling
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers pushed U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday for more information about his firing of federal prosecutors while fellow Republicans said it was time to move on.
Just as he did before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Gonzales withstood another day of sharp questioning from members of Congress but little evidence emerged to suggest his job was in jeopardy.
Amazing, how on a day where the Democratic Congress was leading the way on an investigation, that the story is framed first to show how well Gonzales did under pressure (which you wouldn't gather from the blogging), and that the next step in both stories was to present the extent GOP Congressional support for him.
Not that I'm surprised at this point. But still...