Roger Simon — not the screenwriting blogger, but the longtime Washington journalist — has written a sarcastic and passionate defense of the media’s obligation to “ask questions” of Sarah Palin:

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.

Yes, of course. The injustice done this week is the injustice done to the media by Republicans. Nobody in the media, or in the New York Times or Washington Post, mentioned that, say, there were rumors Trig Palin was not actually Sarah’s baby but rather the child of her daughter Bristol. By mentioning those rumors, these two leading newspapers in the United States were only “asking questions.” To expect such disgusting speculations to remain in the fever swamps and not be spread about by the “media” is to insist that the media’s “job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.” Truly, Roger Simon has looked deep into the heart of Republican darkness and seen the evil lurking there.

For this piece, Simon will be greeted with wild applause by the members of his profession–or at least those in his profession who are not currently unable to applaud because they are too busy signing their buyout contracts.