We know and love TPM. Today, though, they need to be spanked. I'm sure it's just a brain fart, but it's a fart nonetheless, and they need to hear it: talk@talkingpointsmemo.com.
Here's the problem:
The front page (as of 10:15 Eastern) has this breathless headline:
Obama Camp Provided Access To Top Advisers For Big Donors
OMGOMGOMG! He's a corrupt politician after all! You've all been fuuuled!
Except that...
...the link turns out to be to a Politico piece by Mike Allen. This Mike Allen:
The Politico’s chief political correspondent, Mike Allen, has a problem. He loves conservatives. Conservative bloggers, conservative talk show hosts. He acts like a lovelorn puppy dog when he’s around them. A few weeks ago Allen couldn’t stop humping Matt Drudge’s leg, now he moves on to Hugh Hewitt.
See also Atrios.
In other words, Mike Allen is a right-wing hack. He makes Politico Politico. True to form, his piece says nothing to indicate how Obama's upper-echelon fundraising makes his campaign different from any other -- like McCain's, for example. In other words, his article isn't news. Quite literally, there's nothing new. It's a hit piece, published six days out from an election, the day Obama goes on the air with the final chapter of his campaign story, after 20 months.
And TPM frontpaged it. No flashing red siren, but there may as well be.
Then beneath this breathless headline is another:
Obama Accepting Largely Untraceable Donations
The link is to a WaPo article that is also, as far as I can tell, another hit piece. Read it and you discover that Obama isn't actually violating any rules. Huh.
TPM needs to be spanked. This crap should not be on the front page of an otherwise supremely reputable source. Leave fair and balanced for Fox and Drudge.
Email them here: talk@talkingpointsmemo.com