Actually a good read on the whole how politics thing...

Now "Vice President Says Political Opponent is Wrong" is a bit of a dog-bites-man story, so you might think the press would report the more interesting "Vice President Misrepresents Political Opponent's Remarks" angle. But no, the nation's major papers dutifully relayed Cheney's attack and relegated response from the Kerry campaign far down in the stories where many readers will miss it. What's more, none of them felt compelled to take the rudimentary step of reporting what Kerry actually said. After all, as The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung helpfully explained last week, the press is "inevitably the mouthpiece for whatever administration is in power" -- a strange understanding of the Fourth Estate’s proper role that is perhaps best explained by Post Executive Editor Len Downie's bizarre theory that the content of media coverage is unrelated to policy outcomes.