Two of the things struck me at YearlyKos were (1) the ominipresence of the media and (2) the hostility of many bloggers towards the media. The first is illustrated by the fact that we were interviewed by three reporters during the conference, the second by the fact that the panel discussion (with Mike Allen, Jay Carney, Glenn Greenwald, and one of the bloggers from Feministing) rapidly devolved into a “why do you print lies” hecklefest (the panelists performed admirably under the circumstances).

You see this locally as well, where I’ve heard more than one person tell me that Joe Spector’s failure to report on their event proved that Spector had a secret right-wing agenda (or was just lazy). This can be silly. The media — and the D&C in particular — have serious problems, but solid beat reporters like Joe Spector are not among them.

Along these lines, I had the opportunity to speak with Ben Smith of the Politico, who is widely reviled among liberal bloggers for “breaking” the Edwards haircut story. While the attention this story received speaks volumes of what’s wrong with our media, it’s not really Smith’s fault: the story appeared in his political blog which reports on all kinds of minutiae and he’s not responsible for the fact that this non-story captured the imaginations of dolts like Maureen Dowd and Roger Simon. Mr. Smith also told me something I hadn’t thought of: that a lot of presidential candidates spend most of their times talking about themselves and that that inevitably invites a certain amount of personal scrutiny. Scrutiny in the form of quick blog posts from beat reporters, I agree, is acceptable — it’s when something trivial because a source for multiple pieces by influential opinon writers that things go seriously awry.

Make no mistake: locally, the D&C editorial board deserves condemnation for its focus on silly, divisive issues like internet filters in libraries and the Pledge of Allegiance in schools; nationally, David Broder, Tom Friedman, and the rest of the self-important ill-informed windbags who have destroyed our national discourse deserve their own ring of hell (and neoconeservative editorial boards like the Washington Post’s and Wall Street Journal’s deserve a place worse than hell).

But regular political beat reporters — especially ones who keep blogs and make an effort co communicate with readers — probably deserve more of a pat on the back.