Curiously, Robert Costa does.
What would you have learned if you had trusted Robert Costa the week before the election? This:
Three blue states could turn red: Ohio is the presidential campaign’s fall blockbuster.... But it is not the only must-watch battleground. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are looking decidedly purple.... WISCONSIN Status: Toss-up.... Mitt Romney was set to campaign Monday in Wisconsin. He has already rescheduled for later this week — with good reason. The Badger State has suddenly emerged as a potential pickup. In the final days, look for the Romney campaign to put significant time and resources into the state. Local congressman Paul Ryan’s inclusion on the Republican ticket has energized the Romney campaign’s Wisconsin team.... [I]n the latest Rasmussen poll, Romney ties Obama....
You get the picture.
Anybody who trusted Robert Costa wound up more ignorant. He did not have the critical perspective on his Romney campaign sources and their pet pollsters that a reporter needed--no bullshit filter.
And, in Dylan Byers's view, the absence of a bullshit filter makes you a "breakout political reporter"--never mind that what he reported just wasn't so, and that to people not entirely within the right-wing bubble there were no good-faith reasons for him to believe it was so.
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
UPDATE: And, indeed, the misinformation continues. In his latest Costa (a) fails to warn his readers that the "Bowles Plan" Boehner now claims to endorse is not the Bowles-Simpson DRC Chairmen's Mark, and (b) fails to warn his readers that Bowles does not endorse but rather repudiates what Boehner is now calling the "Bowles Plan".
Never mind that it is not a counteroffer at all--it has category headline numbers, but no policies to get there.
Once again: trust Robert Costa, wind up more ignorant.
House Republicans Send Counteroffer to Obama: The House GOP’s message to Obama: We’re not buckling on rates. In a letter this afternoon, House Republican leaders issued their counteroffer to President Obama’s initial fiscal-cliff proposal, which was presented by Treasury secretary Tim Geithner last week. “We continue to oppose” tax-rate increases, they write. “We cannot in good conscience agree to the [Geithner] approach, which is neither balanced nor realistic.” Instead, House Republicans prefer the “Bowles plan”…. "[T]he Bowles plan is exactly the kind of imperfect, but fair middle ground that allows us to avert the fiscal cliff without hurting our economy and destroying jobs. We believe it warrants immediate consideration”…
