Is it because they’re terrified of the prospect of reporting anything negative about a man who was a POW?

Don’t laugh or scoff; remember, the media played into the Iraq War because they were terrified of being seen as anything less than 200% patriotic. And we have Tom Brokaw now announcing that Democrats can’t “rough up” John McCain since he was a POW. Even though every major Democrat prefaces their criticism of McCain by stating that he is (a) a good man, (b) a war hero, and (c) a patriot, and the criticism is not of his war record, but of his political policies and actions.

If Brokaw’s statement is a window into the mindset of the media, then that explains a lot. That they perhaps have fallen, hook, line, and sinker, for the McCain suggestion that any criticism of McCain is blasphemy because you are besmirching a man who lived in a prison cell in Hanoi for five and a half years.

Which, of course, is pretty ludicrous. Not just because if it were a Democrat who went through that then Republicans would have no problem swift-boating him as a liar and a traitor, and not just because Democrats already prostate themselves to McCain’s war-herodom every time they make any criticism about him. It’s mostly ludicrous because the idea simply has no logic to it. We’re talking about electing a president who will determine the country’s fate for the next four years here, not choosing a Senator-of-the-Month who just gets his photo on the wall. This is not just about image.

So when a venerated news anchor says that McCain’s POW history makes any difference when criticizing his policies, you become aware of a disturbing mindset: McCain can get away with just about anything and the media won’t report on it.