NPR: What matters is who's up and who's down

To all you fans of NPR out there who think your're getting thoughtful coverage, I think this comment on a blog is pretty dead-on:

Listening to NPR’s coverage of healthcare reform over the last few months, I think I’ve heard about five stories that cover the story in terms of “what failing to pass reform will do to Obama’s poll numbers” for every one that actually tries to explain the details of the competing plans being proposed. And that’s NPR, arguably the most thoughtful and “intellectual” MSMer out there.

If you think you're getting something different and more accurate on NPR, keep this in mind. NPR is itself dominated by "horse race" political journalism. Maybe it's only 80% compared to 95% for the private big media electronic outlets, but it's still 80%. All that policy stuff is so boring, and everyone I know has health insurance so what's the big deal?