Our Broken Media: The Villager Party Circuit, cont'd.

Think Progress' Matt Yglesias skewers the insufferable Villager Mark "Drudge Rules Our World" Halperin's take that the Obamas are "failing" at keeping the Washington cool kids happy and entertained. Halperin apparently believes that attending more embassy parties and cocktail parties with the journalistic elite would serve the Obamas better, than say, attending to more pressing national problems. "Wooing official Washington" to Halperin seems to mean wooing his friends like the Sally Quinns, David Broders. and Cokie Robertses rather than anything "official," as Yglesias points out. But this is exactly how the Beltway media think of themselves: running "official" Washington, holding court and requiring elected officials to pay their respects at their "salons." Otherwise, nasty op-eds and stories appear, whispered rumors spread, and careers are ruined. Just ask the Clintons.