Constitutional smackdown The media are itching for a juicy government crisis -- for all the wrong reasons.

By Martin Kaplan Secretary of State Alexander Haig told Now, finally, work by committees Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2007 the White House press corps, "I'm in chaired by Leahy, Rep. Henry Waxman control here," that was catnip to the (D-Los Angeles) and others has resulted constitutional-crisis caucus. in aggressive oversight, subpoenas and WHEN someone like Tim Russert asks the flexing of legitimate check-and- someone like Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), The disputed Florida ballots in the 2000 balance powers. Now, finally, the media as he did Sunday on NBC's "Meet the presidential election were also made in are belatedly discovering the analogy Press," whether a conflict between heaven for this kind of media framing, between Bush and President Nixon. "If Congress and the Bush White House will though Republicans proved far more the president does it, that means it is not lead to a constitutional crisis, I get the adept than Democrats in turning it their illegal," Nixon said, and even a torpid sense that the news industry has a way. When John Bolton burst into a press corps can't remain deaf to its rooting interest in the answer being Tallahassee library where a hand count contemporary resonance. "yes." I do too, but for different reasons. of ballots was underway and declared, "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm The media's motive for crying "constitu- News has become a profit center for the here to stop the count," it was covered tional crisis!" may be more about ratings media sector, and a constitutional crisis as political theater. Yet when Al Gore than journalism, but that doesn't bother — in this case, over the administration's was deciding how to respond to the me. The real danger isn't that wall-to- refusal to honor congressional subpoe- situation, the media framed his choice wall coverage will sensationalize and nas concerning the fired U.S. attorneys as doing the right thing (folding) or trivialize a showdown. It's that the — would be a ratings winner. Like the serving his ambition (causing a constitu- media, rather than attempting to sort war in Iraq — but unlike, say, the tional crisis). out truth from falsehood, insight from genocide in Darfur or the commuting of talking points, principle from propa- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence In the years since, though there is ample ganda, will instead frame it, as it pretty (which was within the president's evidence that the Bush administration much does all public issues, in the power) — it would get its own scary regards the Constitution as a set of postmodern false equivalence of theme music, its own creepy custom barnacled suggestions, it has pretty he-said/she said, concluding with "we'll graphics, its own special squadron of much been left to the lefty blogosphere have to leave it there." dueling partisans and paid analysts. to assert (shrilly, say the mainstream media) that democracy is endangered. Or maybe the real danger is that Lindsay An endangered Constitution would Lohan will go on a bender and the warrant nonstop damsel-in-distress President Bush's theory of the "unitary media herd will move on, leaving the attention, like the legion of missing executive," which exempts the chief fate of democracy solely to C-SPAN white women or the celeb rehabaholics executive from the law; presidential junkies. deemed editorially worthy of blanket "signing statements" that essentially coverage. It could be "Perils of Pauline" nullify actions by the legislative branch; for fans of the founders. the extension of executive privilege MARTIN KAPLAN directs the beyond anything warranted by the Norman Lear Center for the study of Will our republic survive this standoff entertainment, media and society at courts; the "nuclear option" (renamed by the USC Annenberg School. between the executive and legislative Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch the branches? Will brazen stonewalling or "constitutional option") on cloture: overreaching oversight provoke civil These moves, and more, have arguably unrest? Will this confrontation risk resulted in treaty-busting torture, despotism and derail democracy? Stay warrantless wiretaps, the politicization tuned, folks. of justice and a host of other injuries to freedom. But they have largely been There is, of course, plenty of precedent reported as Washington-as-usual, not as for this kind of coverage. Watergate democracy's slow-motion suicide. provides the template. When, after President Reagan was shot in 1981, Ironically, the only idea to which "constitutional crisis" seems to have been attached is the suggestion from the left that the president ought to be impeached — which is built into the Constitution but treated by the media as inconceivable.

The Norman Lear Center Los Angeles Times Opinion: Op-Ed July 3, 2007