It was ever thus

On his way out of town, DBK describes this morning's talk shows:

I caught some of Meet the Press as I was washing the breakfast dishes. . . . Leon Panetta of the Panetta Institute was on and spoke for a few minutes about how vital the issues in this election are, how the next president will face numerous crises, and how the American people need to hear discussion of the real issues. I'm not sure what led up to those remarks, but they made a lot of sense, and not a little because those are the kinds of things I have been saying all along.
Bob Schiffer responded to these thoughtful, sensible remarks, with "Do you think Hillary Clinton is trying to remind the voters that Barack Obama is black?"
That's when I went back to washing dishes. This is your serious journalism, ladies and gentlemen. When someone speaks of issues, they speak of quibbles, arguments, and horse race nonsense.

Unfortunately, however, it was ever thus.
The serious journalists in the 1960s were sitting around in the bar in Saigon waiting for the Pentagon to issue press releases describing how well the Vietnam War was going.
The serious journalists in the 1970s were sitting around in the bar in Washington waiting for Nixon to swat down those stupid stories about some kind of break-in.
The serious journalists in the 1980s were writing stories about how disco was dead.
The serious journalists in the 1990s were sniffing through Hillary Clinton's panty drawer.
So finally, in the 2000s, we have serious journalists squeaking with amazement that a black man and a white women are duking it out for the Democratic nomination. They just can't deal with it.
But then again, they never could.