Good morning from frigid New Hampshire. The temps outside are not as low as predicted. The empty guest bedrooms are down to 45 degrees and our own bedroom is at 60. The Mac does not seem happy with that number--refuses to load its programs.
The washing machine in the cellar doesn't want to work either. The hose seems to be frozen.
The dog is going to be encouraged to relieve herself down there, since at these temperatures it seems imprudent to take the long walks she usually needs. We'll see if a not-so-young dog can learn new tricks. She has learned that it's no fun being outside.
So much for the weather report.
The big issue on the Dean blog overnight was the negative media spin to which he has been subject and which has now been verified by an "independent" analysis of the major news sources.
After reading the New Yorker article on the White House relations with the press, it occurs to me that Dean is being used to compensate for the fact that there is very little unscripted "news" coming out of the Administration. So, in addition to providing "balance" for every critical report that covers his competitors in the Democratic primaries, Dean is the counter-point for "stories" about Bush.
If that's the case, then it's not surprising that there are so many negatives--one Dean for every Bush, Kerry, Gebhardt, Edwards, Clark, and Lieberman (Kucinich, Sharpton, and Braun having been virtually written off).
I'm not inclined to subscribe to the left- or right-wing bias theory, if only because a structural problem in the journalistic process could actually be fixed, while bias tends to be largely intractible. If it can even be proved.