Gen. Stanley McChrystal, image via WikipediaBy Chuck Todd and Albert OetgenSeptember 6, 2010
A day after Rolling Stone Magazine published an
explosive profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, featuring raw comments and
salty language, a sort of self-generated audit of Washington's
journalistic conventions took off inside the Beltway.
One
phrase in the piece, written by freelancer Michael Hastings, captured
its tone and triggered this rare self-examination: An unnamed McChrystal
staffer referred to Vice President Joe Biden, the man a heartbeat away
from being his commander-in-chief, as Joe "Bite Me." It was offensive to
official Washington, not for its substance, but for its ham-handed
execution.
Sure, we talk like that all the time
among ourselves, veteran insiders told one another. But how in the
world did that stuff get into print? How, especially, did McChrystal
let himself get connected to some of that language? And, oh, by the
way, since when did it become okay to use cheap shot, schoolyard barbs
uttered by unidentified and unaccountable mid-level staffers to
disparage the McChrystals and Bidens of the world?
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