America would be better served if reporters would keep to reporting news instead of creating it. At the least, in-depth analysis of "old" news would be a better time-filler than unsourced speculation as "new" news. Leave the faux news to Fox News.

Let me get this straight... you're blaming the Obama team because bored reporters are making stuff up? Must Obama entertain you every day?

Let me get this straight... you're blaming the Obama team because bored reporters are making stuff up? Must Obama entertain you every second?

this is a clinton administration and thats what it will look like on jan. 21...
where is the change....
liar liar obama's pants on fire...
suckers...........................

Dana, Dana, Dana:
Having taught high school for 35 years, I am very familiar with the lament in this article. If you don't pay attention to me, I'll throw spit wads or, perhaps, fall out of my chair. You all need to grow up. There are too many of you and too many hours to fill in the 24-7 format you have set for yourselves. There will not be news breaking every day and you have the responsibility to deal with that honestly. President-elect Obama does not have a responsibility to fill your pages. He needs to devote himself to organizing and implementing a sound government on Jan. 20th. Deep breath....relax.....this, too, shall pass!

Why don't the media just shut up and wait? Do they have to fill every void with their own made-up stories just because an elected figure isn't operating on what they consider to be a fast enough schedule?

It reminds me of when a local TV news show has a "breaking news" story and then goes live to a reporter in the field where, essentially, nothing's happened yet. It's their way of generating interest, but there's no actual information, just vapor.

News sources would help their credibility if they didn't report unsubstantiated rumors - or speculations - as "news".

So?

There is nothing that is bad news for Obama right now. What with people all over the nation walking around spontaneously shouting out his name, smiling at strangers, and soaking up what feels like a miraculous return to Democracy and a restoration of the basic idea of American intelligence.
The real entertainment is coming in witnessing the circular firing squad the Republicans are conducting.

Dana,

Even the birds in my yard know that when the feeder is empty they go to where the food is actually available. They don't just hang around pecking away at nothing.

If Obama does nothing but rehire the Clintonistas, his administration won't stand for CHANGE. It will stand for CHANGE BACK. We'll be in the 21st century but the Obama administration will be stuck in the hey-day of the 1990s.

And that will really be too damn bad. For the rest of us.

Thanks much. Liberal, Obama suppporter, Vietnam era Vet

In other news ...

This morning I looked at the cover of the New Yorker that arrived in my mailbox today, and I started to laugh and cry at the same time.

You heard it here first.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine

It's going to be a lean Christmas for most of us this year, but, you know -- skating there is free. Did you know that? "Free," as in "free."

Ain't but one goddam song that can make me break down and cry.

Milbank has been itching to pick a fight with Obama ever since he got booted from MSNBC for spreading unsubstantiated accusations about Obama's campaign. Now he's implying that if Obama doesn't supply a daily dose of information, he and others will just make crap up and spread it around. Looks like Milbank hasn't learned his lesson.

As usual, the news is not in the Washington Post. See the latest Public Citizen release on the role of big contributors and their corporate connections. The beat goes on and the Post concentrates on fashion, style and the prosperity of a change in political direction for its readers. Maybe DC will get a representational vote. Not!!

You want to make news?

STOP the government/tax payer adoption of the already dead General Motors!

The soviet car manufacturers were terrible because they could not go out of business.
How many of you have had the misfortune of driving a Skoda cross country?

Only competitive, sustainable industries should be promoted with tax dollars. Poorly built American gas guzzlers are dinosaurs.

I have driven almost a million miles in a series of 5 Subaru Outbacks (built in Indiana) and have never once needed a tow.

Dana,

Isn't there a war, or maybe a financial crisis that you guys could go report on? Geeesh!

Think of the notion of Prudence or wisdom. What is the prudent thing to do - bet your your future on a bunch of kids that might destroy the country or bet the country on people that were actually competent from the Clinton and other previous administrations?
Once you have the necessary competent people in place then you make changes otherwise you have the experience of the ground always shifting - like a loose or decayed tooth you never know when the pain is going to happen but its going to happen.
Pull the tooth and put in a new one or drill and fill and then start working on re-arranging the rest of the country's smile.

Let me get this straight... you're blaming the Obama team because bored reporters are making stuff up? Must Obama entertain you every second?

Posted by: mpl2 | November 12, 2008 10:52 AM

YES! The Obama team should be entertaining me EVERY second. Since the campaign is over I have been sooo bored. There are no stupid Palin comments to look forward to. No McCain "campaign suspension" to look forward to. Ugh! Waay too much free time to actually get work done at work.

Obama should have an assistant that follows him around ALL the time and twitters his everyday mundane tasks. Stuff like "30 minutes on the treadmill" and "Shot baskets from the free throw line. 28 of 50." and "Waiting in carpool line to pick up Sasha."

Now THAT would be awesome!

I am sure when Obama has something to report to the media it will be provided. In the meantime, he is collecting information and going through the decision process. Despite what you might think it is not about you reporters. Yes you have a job to do and your bosses expect you to file stories. However, that is no excuse for making hasty decisions just to feed the media's unending appetite for inside stories. Just relax. I have a sense that Obama is not going to conduct all his deliberations in public which is probably a good thing.

Seems like the press is tracking Obama's movements a bit too closely, and looking for answers before they have any clues.

Move along. Between the "Obama watch" and the "Palin everywhere" on cable, one would think the world had just shattered and there were only a couple of people left.

Move along, answers will reveal themselves. And for those craning their necks to see the fender-bender on the other side of the highway - better to look forward, lest you be part of the theater of the absurd.

The Obama campaign had superb control over leakers. That's not going to be an option for him when he takes over the Executive branch. There will be too many people who might have axes to grind, and too many reporters & columnists who will be happy to receive any and all leaks, no matter how inaccurate.

In principle, leaking is not necessarily a bad thing. It's often the only way whistle-blowers can get evidence of malfeasance out into the light. But the practice of selective leaking for political gain has corrupted the process badly in the years following Watergate (see, for example, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, et. al.)

Having said all that, it sure would be nice if you folks cut Obama a break for the duration of the transition. I'm sure the transition team will be only too happy to release information when it has information it wants to release. There can hardly be any issues of malfeasance yet -- he hasn't taken office!

In the meantime, you can write far more interesting thought-pieces, like the one on race relations.

Oh, pardon me. You didn't write the interesting thought-piece about race relations. Chris Cillizza did that. Maybe you should think about writing something more weighty along those lines.

Really, lets not "create a false sense of urgency" (John Stewart) over nothing.

Please, the election is over, everyone go live your life and leave governing to the government.

It's out of our hands now, we did our part now let them get on with this, jeesh.

So what if Clinton advisors show up to give advice, good - that was a great successful administration. But it turns out that even this has been reported in error.

Good luck everyone.

It's a tremendous relief not to care what you, Mr. Milbank, and the other pundits in the echo chamber write. Enjoy yourselves because nobody takes you seriously.

Real news is worse. In the absence of news, the media ideologues can continue to indulge in their fantasies. In fact, we have already had real news of the appointment of Obama's chief of staff and seen the advisers that Obama chose to surround himself with at his first real news conference. Those in the media who continue to expect an agenda from Obama guided by some kind of radical political ideology must not have tuned in. They seem to have been duped by the Republicans into confusing Obama with Bill Ayers.

Why aren't the reporters digging into who the actual criminals were that used UBS to avoid taxes and which corporations that were bailed out using middle-class taxpayer money they were the CEOs and CFOs of?

THERE'S PLENTY OF WORK TO DO, REPORTERS!

Now get back to WORK!

"this is a clinton administration and thats what it will look like on jan. 21...
where is the change....
liar liar obama's pants on fire...
suckers..........................."

Posted by: DwightCollins

Hey, Dwight--showing off your ignorance again? No one knows who's going to be on the team, but there you go, prognosticating again. How many bets did you lose on this election?

As a former news editor and currently an attorney, I am appalled at the premise of this column. While there is much pressure on journalists to beat the competition to a story, each reporter AND editor bears the professional responsibility -- indeed, the unwavering obligation -- to ensure the accuracy and reliability of a story's sources.

The arrogance of so many members of the news media recently in believing the world owes them a story is mind-boggling. Do your jobs right, gang, and STOP pretending the Obama team or anyone else needs to put "news creation" on their schedule. Seriously! Shame on you today, Mr. Milbank.

I don't think that we should bail out the auto industry. The airlines file for bankruptcy all the time and they continue to fly. Why can't the auto makers do the same? The biggest problem with the auto makers are the unions and those union contracts need to be broken.

Do people who criticize advisors from the Clinton administration also prefer doctors right from medical school over doctors with proven records of success? We know doctors use info from annual medical exams to diagnose and treat patients when things go wrong. So is experience important?

Voters decided that things have gone wrong for the country, so it seems like common sense to bring in people who know what was being done when things were going well. Right now change means getting policies, departments and agencies out of the ideological ditch of the Bush administration. The nation has been brought to its knees and that means we need people with experience to get us through this crisis.

Oh, my god, yes, this is awful. President-Elect Obama is putting competent people who have served in a successful administration in key roles in his transition team. How could he??? We've been so used to the nepotism and cronyism of the Bush administration - where are all the fundraisers with no experience who could fill key positions? Brownie, for example? Please - continue to look into this. I'm sure there's nothing more important to investigate right now.