In the latest installment of a Columbia Journalism Review series on "special interest groups... at Obama's table" and "how the media are covering them," Trudy Lieberman (CJR.org, 3/6/09) reports that

Saul Friedman, who writes a popular column called Gray Matters for Newsday, has been almost alone in writing about what he has called a "blackout" on discussions of a single-payer health system. Last month, AARP's chief (and super influential) lobbyist, John Rother, told Friedman that although there is broad support for single-payer, the cognoscenti didn’t feel that it was a pragmatic solution.

While stating that "there are vocal pockets of single-payer activism around the country," Lieberman turns to an independent outlet when noting that "a woman named Laura Bonham wrote an impassioned piece for OpEdNews.com urging Americans to reject the lockdown on a single-payer discussion." See our Media Advisory about the new FAIR Study: "Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare: Proponents of Popular Policy Shut Out of Debate" (3/6/09)

New York Times columnist Gail Collins is really kind of a tragic figure. She used to write for the Long Island paper Newsday, finding a way to cover New York State politics from Albany in a way that was both informative and funny--no mean feat. Then she went to work for the Times and has never been the same since. Today she's got a piece about how an old dog won a dog show and how a number of people in public life are old.

She used to be a writer whose work could be compared to that of Molly Ivins. Now she seems like she's trying to understudy for Maureen Dowd.  It's a warning to us all.