John Ashcroft, so they say, doesn’t read newspapers much. This is bad. Partly, it’s bad because of my job. I write for a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper about law and politics. I hope that people like Ashcroft might be at least curious about what people like me have to say. It’s an audience thing. So I’ve got to admit I’m a bit crestfallen to hear that the attorney general has better things to do with his time than what you’re doing with yours.
But beyond that, I find it disturbing because of what it says about Ashcroft — and the Bush administration — more generally. News, at least when it’s not tracking shark attacks, is ultimately about debate. Of course, to get there, reporters report. Executions, politically suicidal comments by Senate leaders, numbers of deported aliens swept up in post-Sept. 11 dragnets, final orders on Microsoft’s monopoly, the ease of taking maternity leave — stuff like that.
