Talking about bipartisanship, Representative Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York who is retiring after this session ends, faulted both the media and the voters when talking about why things had changed.
“It used to be you had real friends on the other side of the aisle,” Ackerman told Bloomberg Businessweek. “It’s not like that anymore. Society has changed. The public is to blame as well. I think the people have gotten dumber.”
“I don’t know that I would’ve said that out loud pre-my announcement that I was going to be leaving,” he added. (The transcript includes [Laughter] at that point.) “But I think that’s true. I mean everything has changed. The media has changed. We now give broadcast licenses to philosophies instead of people. People get confused and think there is no difference between news and entertainment. People who project themselves as journalists on television don’t know the first thing about journalism. They are just there stirring up a hockey game.”
(Hat tip: Politico)