The perils of horse race journalism — the fall-back position of all too many political reporters — were demonstrated anew yesterday.
As we reported earlier, our favorite morning newspaper (The Daily Racing Form) last week gave readers predictions from 19 ace handicappers as to who would finish where in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of racing’s Triple Crown.
As it happened, not one of the 19, who actually get paid for this kind of stuff, chose Birdstone, the eventual winner, to even finish in the top three. As we see it, that more than qualifies any one of these guys to become senior political correspondent for any number of big news outlets.
They would, alas, fit right in.
–Steve Lovelady
Steve Lovelady was editor of CJR Daily.