Noted in passing

We now have yet another demonstration, if one was needed, of the complete and utter failure of the media to actually inform the public and thereby serve the public interest. The opening paragraph of the Roll Call story on today's Senate tax votes read this way:

Senate Democrats remained defiant Saturday after Republicans easily defeated their middle-class tax-cut proposals and said they would simply allow all of the Bush-era tax cuts to expire if the GOP does not relent.

John Stanton, the staffer who wrote that, is either a jackass or a liar. The GOPpers did not "defeat" the two proposals, they successfully filibustered them. They successfully prevented them from coming up for a vote. But oh no, according to Roll Call, they weren't blocked, they weren't filibustered, they were "defeated." Easily so, in fact. Bullshit.

Revealingly, Stanton does not include the actual votes, which were 53-36 in both cases. I expect that was because it's hard to argue that the GOPpers "easily defeated" the proposals when the opponents got 17 fewer votes than the proponents did.

I want to note clearly that I'm not presenting this as a case of "GOPpers bad, Dims good." It's a case of "media bad." Again.