Case In Point

I've happily bashed the established media, and the AP in particular, for doing a piss-poor job of reporting. Here's an excellent case in point (and by the AP, no less). Kansas Democrats and Federal Republicans are sniping over whether or not the Kansas National Guard has enough gear to respond to the tornado-ravaged towns, what with the need for equipment in Iraq and all. The article is almost exclusively she-said-he-said, with a few percentages thrown in to make it seem substantial. But I have no freakin' clue whose claims might be right, who's using what figures in what way to bolster their arguments, and what the accuracy of such figures may be. The only thing I can parse out of the article is that when Tony Snow says Kansas' governor hasn't requested any equipment, he's avoiding the question of whether the Kansas National Guard would be able to provide it if she did ask for it. But that doesn't mean she's right and he's wrong. The article raises more questions than it answers, in a way that bespeaks lazy reporting. It might be fair and balanced but that's irrelevant because it's utterly useless ("Democrats and Republicans Disagree! Story on page 98"). That, by far, is the most important point.