The Platonic ideal of “both sides” reporting.
The main premise of Hulse’s article is that the public will blame Democrats and Republicans equally in the event of a debt default. And as a description of public opinion, that is perfectly true. People believe all sorts of ridiculous things. But it becomes clear that Hulse is not merely describing public opinion but actually endorsing it asHulse’s story takes the form of alternating quotes from Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for the impasse.
Everybody in Washington, D.C., including Hulse, understands this fact on some level. The debt ceiling has been lifted 42 times since the start of the Reagan era. There was little to no drama surrounding those episodes. During the vast majority of those times, Hulse was not writing articles wondering whether the debt ceiling would be breached, because nobody was threatening default to force the opposing party to give them concessions.
Hulse’s story is a classic of the old Washington reporting school. It reifies the conventional wisdom, transmogrifying the opinions of the business lobby and official Washington into undeniable truths. It treats the existence of disagreement between the parties as metaphysical proof that reality must lie in between.
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