Mike Madden writes in Salon about one of the parties the White House throws for the press in December: “Very few people there, though, seemed to think there was any reason to be embarrassed of the spectacle of reporters posing for pictures with the president. It’s easy to see why the White House thinks these things are worth putting on. It’s harder and harder to see why the media still agrees.” I would say that the last two sentences get things exactly backward, especially for Republican administrations.