Jonah's Prediction

Jonah Goldberg predicts:

Whoever wins the election, the media coverage of Iraq will become notciably more upbeat after the election. The reasons for this are multiple. One, reporters probably don’t have that much dour stuff left unreported-upon. Two, if Bush wins, news outlets are going to need to recultivate their sources. Three, if Kerry wins, the press will generally be in an upbeat mood and start feeling patriotic again.

Makes sense to me.

UPDATE: Let me make clear here that I agree with Jonah in realpolitik terms, which I think is how he intended his post. Of course, as has been noted in the comments, the NYT and CBS must have their feet held to the fire. In fact, the NYT is particularly to be criticized for continuing their association with CBS after Rathergate. The NYT tried to correct itself after Jayson Blair – changed editors, brought in an ombudsman, etc. You would think an organization that paid at least some attention to self-improvement would find CBS’ post-Rather behavior abhorrent. Imagine trying to remain a credible media outlet while staying in business with a network which promulgated forged documents during an election and barely acknowledged it after the most incriminating evidence. If I were the Times, I would have severed relations with CBS immediately. Shame on them.