Yuval Levin gets it exactly right:
I have never seen, and I admit that I could never have imagined, such shameful, out-of-control, frenzied, angry, condescending, and pathetic journalistic malpractice. The ignorant assault on Palin’s accomplishments and experience, the breathless careless airing of deranged rumors about her private life, the staggeringly indecent mistreatment of her teenage daughter in a difficult time, the ill-informed piling on about the vetting process, the self-intensifying circle of tisking nodding heads utterly detached from a straightforward political event, have been amazing and eye-opening.
The patina of MSM respectability certainly is gone. Part of the stunned reaction of many conservative observers is the recognition and reaffirmation that the media, huddled in their skyboxes and cocooned in the rooms surrounding the Xcel main arena, spin their therioes without regard to any real events –even those right under their noses. The hysteria is entirely self-created and multiplied by the proximity of other media outlets. The separation between media conviction (“She must not have been vetted”) and facts (She completed the same exhaustive process as other nominees) and between expectations (“The wheels are coming off the McCain bus”) and external events (e.g. polls remain with the margin of error, delegates are enthusiastic about her) does take ones breath away.