We're making a difference.  I've been told that journalists at the Washington Post by and large don't like having Technorati on their articles because they don't like the criticism.  That's obviously not true for every one of them, and I'm sure that it will change as they get used to it.  But the criticism we're making is going up the food chain, and it is working.

For instance, after Chris posted on the Washington Post's Richard Morin, many of you confronted him in the online chat, which was quite revealing.  Chris and I were reading it together, and we literally couldn't believe that Morin would actually get angry at readers for asking questions about impeachment, and proudly wear that anger on his sleave.  His excuses were something to see, from 'I got lots of emails from a Democratic group and they were annoying' to 'We won't ask questions on impeachment because leaders haven't discussed it.'  Then Media Matters weighed in, showing that Morin was full of it.  (Long story short: Almost immediately, the Post ran polls on impeachment for Clinton).

Now Digby, Jane Hamsher, and Atrios have taken the critique of insularity to a higher level.  Dan Froomkin is discussing impeachment.  Keith Olberman is discussing it.  And now Editor and Publisher has subtly taken Morin to task for his outburst.  Froomkin said it best: "There is nothing wrong with asking the question."

But it really is larger than the 'I' word.  After all, Cheney is the one saying that Nixon was right all along.  He's talking to impeachment, even if it's one that almost happened 30 years ago.  This is about the insularity and inconsistency of Richard Morin and the people that employ him.  Morin is pulling the same nonsense on Alito, refusing to acknowledge the existence of other polls even though he said that was unsound journalism in his most revealing online chat.

Ultimately, this is not about isolated journalists, as Zizka points out, but about Donald Graham and Arthur Sulzberger, the inheritors of the public trust that they abuse by allowing this type of behavior to go on.  We are not a country of kings, and we are not a country of aristocracy.  It is a problem that the two papers of record are owned by two rich kids who inherited them from uberwealthy parents.  There's no accountability there.  And Morin-like behavior is the result.

So keep doing what you're doing, MyDD readers.  Let's hold them to the standards they set for themselves.  It's working.