[+/-] The Newsweek Effect

Check out a good E.J. Dionne column today:

I fear that too many people in traditional journalism are becoming dangerously defensive in the face of a brilliantly conceived conservative attack on the independent media.

Conservative academics have long attacked 'postmodernist' philosophies for questioning whether 'truth' exists at all and claiming that what we take as 'truths' are merely 'narratives' woven around some ideological predisposition. Today's conservative activists have become the new postmodernists. They shift attention away from the truth or falsity of specific facts and allegations -- and move the discussion to the motives of the journalists and media organizations putting them forward. Just a modest number of failures can be used to discredit an entire enterprise.