Okay, so this post is a little out-dated. Sorry. I was busy packing for a trip yesterday. Now, am I the only one who's a little annoyed by all the yells of "Tire Swinging!" by the TPM staff (And yes, that includes you too, Mr. Marshall)? Tell me something, what's the point of using this as a war cry supposed to be? Well, let's look at the supposed definition of the term. Quoted by Mr. Marshall of one of the other bloggers,

...to describe a reporter who has gotten way too cozy with a politician and has had their supposed objectivity affected.

That's fair enough. But over the course of this campaign, I think the term has been flanderized into just being a cry of bias at any point. Not only is this bad for giving the term a true meaning, it also discredits any reasonable complaints one of us may have about a columnist's work. Take, for instance, David Brooks on Charlie Rose a day or two ago. Mr. Kurtz calls this tire-swinging. I agree that his thinking is wrong on this. Mr. Brooks really seems to have a difficult time understanding that people (not just people, but ideas as well) are multifaceted. Upon seeing another side to Sen. McCain that's different from the one he's used to, he has a really difficult time accepting it as real, prefering instead to see it as a political persona.
So both Mr. Kurtz and I agree that there is something seriously wrong with Mr. Brooks's argument. However, Mr. Kurtz refers to it as tire-swinging. Really, Mr. Kurtz? Is this problem ultimately because Mr. Brooks is too close to Sen. McCain? Is this a problem he has only when it comes to him?
Actually, no. Mr. Brooks has a history of having trouble accepting more than one facet of an individual, or at least writing as if it were so. One of the other people he's apparently struggled with is none other than our own "Dr. Barack and Fast Eddie Obama." What I, for one, find incredible is that a man who has been watching politicians for so long is still surprised by this. I'm a sophomore in college, and I think that I understand the concept of social selves better than Mr. Brooks does.
But in any case, it's apparent that this is not simply pro-McCain bias. This is a case of a columnist whose way of understanding the way politicians and politics works is fundamentally flawed. Can we acknowledge that? Yes? Then let's move on to the next step of saying it outright. Just calling it bias just makes the person saying that look blindly partisan to anyone who's not predisposed to agree. State outright the logical problem, and it's easier to get not just other readers, but also, on occasion, certainly the commentators as well. Some, like Bill Kristol, there's no hope for in this regard - if he has no facts to back himself up, he'll make them up. But others, Mr. Brooks among them, seem far more conscientious. Saying, "You're a partisan hack" will make people turn a deaf ear, but making a reasoned argument? Believe it or not, people listen to that. Maybe the lowest common denominator won't, but the people who speak to them will, and that's at least as good.
Let me ask you this: Does it help to simply scream "Bias!" and "Tire Swing!" whenever we hear something we don't like, or is it more useful to point out the flaws in  the person's thinking specifically? If you need help answering that question, I can redirect you to the McCain-Palin mobs. Why do you think these people are doing such random and disturbing acts? One good hypothesis is that they're angry, but they don't know why. They "know" the press is biased against Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin, but all they don't know how or why. This leads to feeling helpless. After all, as angry as the rhetoric gets in every corner of the blogosphere, I'd hardly think that anyone is anywhere near angry enough to do some of the things these mobs are doing. They have no way to respond, and so they feel helpless and persecuted. The more that we shove together every thinking flaw that favors the Republicans, the more we confuse ourselves and start yelling aimlessly. Let's start pointing out exactly what the problems are, instead of just screaming in outrage.

Oh, PS: Feel free to be just as direct in complaining about this piece. I'm expecting (and hoping for) a lot of criticism.