The subject of this Ticker blog entry from today is the fact that Sotomayor's former law clerks are overwelmingly "enthusiastic and wholehearted" in their support of Sotomayor's nomination and have sent a letter to Senate leadership proclaiming same. And an item like this is worthy of a highly read national political blog, how precisely? So let me get this straight: Former law clerks whom Sotomayor (1) hired out of law school for very prestigious federal appellate court clerkships, (2) employed in that capacity at a nice salary for the first year or two of their legal careers, and (3) then almost assuredly helped to land their first post-clerkship job in the legal business -- Those people are overwelmingly supportive of Sotomayor's nomination? NOOOO! Stop the presses!!! Who the hell would'a thunk!
I'm not saying this is some earth-shattering misstep by Ticker over which I'm all riled up -- because I'm not. Rather, it just struck me as a bit disappointing, because it appears to be little more than the typical slant of CNN bleeding over into the Ticker's selection of which items it includes. In other words, here's an item that might to an average person at first blush garner a reaction like, "wow, look at all these folks who unanimously support Sotomayor," when in fact taking just a slight look at what's really being claimed here is hardly overly newsworthy or important. As result, the inclusion of this item in the Ticker looks like advocacy to me, which is intolerable for a blog that holds itself out as a journalistic reporter of political news. Still, it seems like I see examples of this same sort of thing nearly every day from the national media, much to the extent that it seems to have lost most of its shock value a long time ago, at least in my eyes.
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