Back during my first college experience, I majored in journalism. I got an associate’s degree, but I felt like I was manicured for the whole enchilada. I was trained by one of the best teachers I’ve ever had: Dave Kratzer.

The first day of Journalism I, Dave sat us doe-eyed, young, high school graduates down and gave us the first and most holy rule of journalism: Question authority.

It wasn’t about being rebellious, though Dave knew a lot about that. He was teaching us something more important: to think critically. The underlying message there was that we should never accept as truth any piece of information just because it came from someone who should know.

Now a lot of journalism programs teach that, but they usually tell you that you need two sources for anything you print. They tell you to verify everything. Its every passive way of getting at what Dave had shown us how to cut right through to the core for.

Journalism is a discipline that requires ultimate objectivity to every perspective but one: the truth. The truth is God and you serve the truth with every fiber of your being.

Being something of a political junkie in the modern era of media, I end up giving it up and then hopelessly picking it up again later. I used to not understand why that was, but increasingly I’m figuring it out.

The media is frequently referred to as Fourth Estate because of its relative importance to the democratic system. It is important because in a representative democracy, the only way the people can hold their representatives in check is by someone watching and making sure they’re doing a good job. So by that measure a healthy democracy can only exist if the media is healthy. Increasingly, over the course of the past 10 years, it has become apparent to me that Fourth Estate is in terrible disrepair.

Of all the people covering the current political climate, I usually drift toward three people, and they’re all NBC’s people – CNN is full of half-wits minus the exception of Jack Cafferty.

Tim Russert asks hard questions, refuses to accept spin for responses and is equally tough on everyone he interviews. Brian Williams also does a fine job of keeping himself objective, and is terribly clever. In news I respect intelligence above all, because it isn’t a field for the dim. But through each night of election returns, I have increasingly warmed to Chuck Todd’s reporting – which is important since he’s political director at MSNBC. He’s managed to stay above the fray through every back and forth and has kept his focus where it should be: the delegates. He’s parsed every set of returns and been forthright about what they mean.

You’ll note that none of them are pundits. Pundits are scum and I’ve had so much more than enough of them, I imagine that if I ever had the chance to confront one, it would so very much worse than what Jon Stewart said.

But recently he wrote something on MSNBC’s site that bothered me quite a bit.

“So if Clinton has a pledged delegate problem (something that’s been well documented) and also has a superdelegate problem, then what’s her path to victory? Believe it or not, it’s the media. This is one area where Clinton has been running circles around Obama. As far as the media’s concerned, Obama may be the Democratic frontrunner, but Clinton is in the driver’s seat. Looking at the campaign narrative, it’s hard to identify the frontrunner. In fact, if you ignore the numbers and just examine the messages being lobbed back and forth between the two campaigns, one might assume Clinton was in the lead.”

So he acknowledges it and isn’t horrified, but rather seemingly bemused? Oh lord….

This is the problem perfectly illustrated. The news isn’t supposed to be entertaining. The media shouldn’t be looking for the entertaining angle, the media should be looking for the truth. If Hillary is throwing spin, they should be deflecting it, not congratulating her on her perfect form.

I’ve heard the media openly discuss the failings of the Democratic party recently. They point to the manner in which the back-and-forth between the candidates is destroying the chance that either candidate will be able to succeed against McCain. But for its many failings (and there are many), the reality is that the Democratic Party isn’t really to blame for this.

Hillary would have dropped out after Ohio and Texas if it the media had reported that her victories were too little, too late and the math was working entirely against her. But they don’t want it to be over and so until Pennsylvania, and probably quite some time thereafter, we’re going to have to listen to this story’s many twists and turns, despite the fact that anyone who has done math already knows how it ends. And in the meantime, the media’s responsibility against the ultimate candidate grows.

So much for the media’s so-called “liberal bias.” Maybe I should start watching Fox News. At least they’re open about what they’re trying to do.

When boys have conflict on the playground, there’s a very low likelihood that it will end in fisticuffs. No matter what they say, most boys don’t want to fight and would really rather work their troubles out without getting hurt. The way most schoolyard brawls happen, is by way of the kids standing in the periphery, calling on the boys to take it to the next level.

The kid is standing there, nerves on high alert. He’s a little scared and definitely unsure of what to do. If no other pressures fall on him, there’s a very strong likelihood he’ll back down and talk it out. But more often than not, from the growing number of onlookers gathering around them, comes a chorus, softly at first, but soon with the impunity truly befitting the label of mob: “Fight, fight, fight, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!”

Before you know it, you have a couple of boys entangled, rolling around on the ground in what is, to most observers, the most clumsy and inane form of hand-to-hand combat known to man.

For all intents and purposes, the fight for the Democratic nomination was over before Tuesday. In debates and interviews, Obama was bemused by Hillary’s new vigor, but you could tell he was trying to be a gracious winner. He knew what only a very minor number of journalists are saying now and that is the cold, hard fact that it is damn near impossible for Hillary to win. Unless Obama trips and falls on top of a dead transvestite hooker, while carrying a burning flag and a bag of starved puppies, he will maintain his lead of popular delegates into the convention, and will likely maintain his popular vote lead as well.

But still the voices come blasting from the sidelines, “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”

The reason why the media are not reporting this on a broader scale is that for the most part, they would see a major hit on their viewership. If the public perceives this contest as over, all of the excited Obama supporters will no longer be poised in front of CNN or MSNBC every Tuesday night, living and dying by each additional percentage of precincts reporting. The only reason they even call a contest for one or the other is because of the prestige of being the first to call it.

Like clockwork, they hype the coming contest for maximum drama, and then act smug when the results come in. It is a show and as manufactured and predictable as an episode of Home Improvement (and increasingly, about as grimly unfunny). The media live and die by the conflict in this contest. The candidates admit there are minor differences in their platforms, so how do you report that two people are essentially campaigning for the same thing both want a job and how do make that report anything more than the video equivalent of Ambien? Simple: Amp up the drama! FIGHT!!!!

The only thing that has had me really stymied until now, is that I have heard people like Nancy Pelosi claim that the long process is good for the party and good for the race. I haven’t really understood that thinking until now. After all, McCain is sitting back, watching Clinton and Obama attack each other while he prepares the larger attack for November. How could this be good for the Democratic contender?

It’s simple though. It’s like vaccines. Every kid is exposed to a number of potentially lethal illnesses early on in a controlled and safe manner, so that when they’re older and the encounter the diseases in a more hostile manner, they are already immune to them. If the Clinton campaign throws off everything that they have at Obama, in a careful manner that enables them to support him in the general election, then it follows that the public will already have developed an understanding where Obama sits with these criticisms when McCain comes to attack him in the fall.

That is to say nothing of the many, many new voters invested in this race now. And it is not lost on party leaders that they are invested in a Democrat. They will betray these new voters only at their own peril. The future of a party isn’t its aging electorate (who will become more and more likely to vote party lines as they get older), its in its youth. The Democrats are defining their future with this race. The polls that all show Obama with a 20% adantage over Clinton against McCain? They’re not being ignored by party leaders. They know what those numbers mean.

And all the complaints that Obama isn’t battle-tested? Its being worked on right in front of your eyes. It’s like the old adage, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” And its true: The longer the public is fixated with the contest, the longer they are invested in it and the more likely they will turn up in November to vote. We will have all lived through Obama’s climb to November and we will all know he is as familiar and trustworthy. Because we will have lived through that with him.

And all of this is to say nothing of the fact that Obama has been bordering on over-exposure for a while now. So incessant was the focus on him that in the end, even his supporters were starting to tire of hearing his name. Give Hillary the limelight for a while, remind us of why we were so sick of her to begin with, and before you know it, we’re all relived to see Obama back in front again. Tested and victorious. Honorable in both victory and in defeat.

I cannot say with certainty that this is all scripted, but then again, I knew McCain was going to “come from behind” to take the Repubican nomination back in November based on a couple of slips of the tongue I heard in Republican talking points. What I am very certain about though, is that the Democrats are very aware now of how the story will unfold going into Denver. And what happens between now and then will be a very elaborate campaign for the Presidency in November.

And if I’m wrong, then well, I’ll be wrong on the record. So lets just wait and see.