Why Do Political Journalists Think It’s Their Job to Portray George H.W. Bush as America’s Benign, Saintly Grandpa? slate.com/news-and-polit… It's a good question. I have my ideas, but I'm not sure I know why they do this.
I think it's true, as many have suggested, that portraying Bush Senior as "America's benign, saintly grandpa" is in part a way for journalists to comment on how gross and embarrassing the current president is, and of expressing the wish for a less ugly politics. But there's more.
I think a kind of game schema is also involved. While he's president, journalists think their role is to be "adversarial," to ask the tough questions, expose the inconvenient fact. But when a political figure leaves office, his exposure no longer counts as a "score" in that game.
Therefore journalists are free to let their sentimental and myth-making selves come out. We see their longing to merge with the nation, to sit in the pews and worship in the church of America, rather than standing to the side, asking questions, expressing doubts— and scribbling.
Please understand: Here I speak of self-image, self-understanding, how they see their part in the Washington script. If I say they think of their role as adversarial, The Skeptics, doesn't mean they WERE that — or were that enough —during, say, the presidency of George H.W. Bush.
