Some interesting bits from Politico’s recent piece on “the hunger for information” about Rick Perry and how “the Texas press stands to benefit from [this] Perrypalooza”—including in the form of book contracts for some veterans of the Perry beat.
For those with books in the works, there’s this warning about “the national media” from Bill Minutaglio, the onetime Dallas Morning News columnist and the author of First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, “the first biography of [George W.] Bush” back in 1999:
[Minutaglio] knows what’s in store for these early-stage Perry interpreters: “innumerable” television interviews, phone calls from New York Times investigative reporters, and the surreal experience of having his narrative chopped up into context-free morsels by the national media.
“People parsed it, and simply went to the parts that they needed to prove their point about Bush, either pro or con,” he said. “When it happened in real time, it was kind of breathtaking. It caused me to rethink how I view the media, or trust the media.”
And there’s this insight on “the national media,” from R.G. Ratcliffe, an Austin American-Statesman reporter who is currently writing a book about Perry:
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.Ratcliffe says he already sees signs that the national media will follow the Texas media in its aggressiveness toward Perry—continuing the stark contrast to Perry’s predecessor.
“I get the sense that the national media would just as soon take Perry out as anything,” he said. “The national media, in 2000, wanted George Bush to be president. The reporters all wanted an inside track to the Bush administration. This time around, it’s like, ‘We want to take the guy’s legs out.’”
