Newshouse Politics

Politco has been all over the story that NBC blowhard Chris Matthews is gearing for Republican Arlen Specter’s Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2010. The site is reporting that Matthews will quit “Hardball” soon to move forward with his campaign.   What’s interesting to me is that no other major news sources have confirmed or even reported politico’s findings. The New York Times hasn’t touched the Matthews story since a blog post in October.  The Washington Post has followed the story but still lags behind Politico’s reporting.

I hope Matthews, if elected, can get along with the Secretary of State.

Such is the age we live in.  We can find constant breaking news on sites like Politico and The Huffington Post, but what can we believe? Right now, Politico sources on the story include anonymous  ”NBC colleagues, political operatives and friends”, so maybe we should hold off until confirmation from more reliable sources.

 I guess one of the reasons why newspapers are struggling is simply because they are getting beat to exclusive stories by the internet.  Just this week , NYT and other news organizations had to give attribution to The Huffington Post and Politico on all stories related to David Gregory as the new moderator of “Meet the Press” .   I imagine that newspaper writers everywhere cringe when they have to give  credit to bloggers and political news Web sites.

Anywho, here are some relevant links for your political consumption:

In case Matthews is actually running, a lengthy NYT’s profile on the Holy Cross alum.

The Franken-Coleman race and  the prowl for missing ballots.

Washington Senators continue to eviscerate leaders from the Big Three.

How incoming White House chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made $18 million in two and a half years.

Barack Obama discuses his promise to get out of Iraq in 16 months.

Keep watching the Harvard endowment as it continues to plunge!  Anybody have $8 billion lying around?