If the national media can be counted on to spin anything dramatically toward the Democrats, it’s a government shutdown. They feel passionately that the Democrats are the Party of Government, and the Republicans are the Haters of Government, so who naturally favors shutting it all down?

Even before the shutdown occurred, NPR and PBS issued their poll warning Republicans would get more of the blame than Democrats. That’s why those partisan hacks deserved defunding. A substantial minority would blame both parties, because the independents told NPR, “They’re just fighting like two little kids.”

But pinning blame on Republicans is the perennial goal of press coverage. During the 1995-1996 shutdown, ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts (and CNN’s World News) ran 48 stories in which reporters ass

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