Washington Post Reports on Texas Gov. Rick Perry and a Potential Run for the Presidency

Memo to New York Times:  This is What is Called Journalism

The Dismal Political Economist commented earlier on the fact that the New York Times supposedly objective “news reporting” ran three stories in the same edition that  served  more as positive publicity pieces for Republican Governors that as actual news. Now the Washington Post has a story on Texas Governor Rick Perry who has just completed a legislative session and is considering a run for the Republican Presidential Nomination.

Will Rick Perry run for president?

AUSTIN — This week marked the end of a legislative season in which Texas Gov. Rick Perry got pretty much everything he wanted — especially if what he wanted were talking points for a Republican presidential campaign.

The Texas legislature passed a fiscally austere budget that left $6 billion in the state’s rainy-day fund, and bills requiring women seeking abortions to get sonograms, voters to show photo identification and plaintiffs who bring lawsuits deemed frivolous to pay court costs and attorney fees.

Even where he was defeated, Perry won points from conservatives for putting up a fight. He tried to ban “sanctuary cities” where police are not allowed to question the immigration status of people they detain. And he forced the lawmakers to vote on an “anti-groping” bill that could have put Transportation Security Administration agents in prison if they do intrusive pat-downs.

which seems to be nice, neutral reporting of what happened, neither praise nor condemnation, as does this.

He is currently the nation’s longest-serving governor, and the longest in Texas history, as well as head of the Republican Governors Association. But his brash, unapologetic conservatism also has elevated him to near-hero status among the tea party

and this also meets that neutral, fact reporting criteria.

With eight years of George W. Bush so recently in the past, “I don’t know if the nation’s ready for another Texan in the White House,” said state Rep. Charlie Geren, who represents the Fort Worth area. “I am, but I don’t know if the rest of the country is.”

The differences between Bush and the man who succeeded him as governor are more pronounced than the similarities in their accents would suggest. Their relationship has long been a tense one. And where Bush famously ran for president as a “compassionate conservative” and “a uniter, not a divider,” Perry would be selling himself as a hard-edged candidate who sees Washington as the enemy.

So, New York Times, take a look at what good reporting looks like.  You might even learn something.