ONCE AGAIN, the press kept the story from us:

News organizations had been poised to write the Hollywood ending for days, and the networks had been sitting on their exit-poll projections for hours — no Florida humiliation possible because the thing wasn’t close. The night’s only cliffhanger was the Marlins beating the Cubs in the 11th.

And there was something surreal about reading Drudge’s report — which was correct — that it wasn’t close, and that the networks were going to call it for Schwarzenegger the minute the polls closed, and then turning on the TV just before they did and seeing the talking heads acting as if the whole question were up in the air, when they knew better, and were just about to say so.

Yeah, I know there’s controversy about reporting this stuff before the polls close, but there’s something worse than unseemly about, basically, lying to viewers for what you see as their own good. And once you admit you’re doing it some of the time, as the networks do in these cases, you make people wonder when else you’re doing it.

UPDATE: It’s revealing, I think, that arguably the three biggest stories at the moment — Iraq, the Plame affair, and the California recall — are all marked by the press not telling us the whole story. And Ralph Peters is hopping mad about the Iraq coverage:

Recently, I visited Germany to speak with our soldiers, many just back from Iraq. The situation depicted in the media was unrecognizable to them. They’d just left a country where every indicator of success was turning positive. Yet the media insist we are incompetent and failing.

The Kurds are prospering. The Shi’ites no longer live in fear. Even most Sunni Arabs feel relieved that Saddam’s gone. The mullahs are behaving. Local markets are busy and full of goods. The electricity’s back on – more reliably than before the war. Schools are open. Oil’s flowing. The Iraqi media is booming, boisterous and free. The Governing Council has convinced previously hostile factions to cooperate. Iraqis provide more and more of their own local security. And the torture chambers are closed.

What do we hear from Iraq? Another soldier killed. The rest is silence.

Actually, there have been some modest improvements as late. But he’s basically right. And he’s right about this, too:

They’ve already made a success of post-modern terrorism as surely as Colonel Tom Parker made Elvis a star.

Terrorists are parasitic on the press, and a particular kind of press coverage. Likewise, the press has become parasitic upon terrorists, since they provide dramatic stories without hard work.

But will the public respect, or trust, parasites? Or even continue to support expansive press freedom, in light of the press’s irresponsibility?

Just something to think about.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader points to this passage from the Peters oped on Iraq and contrasts it with the election coverage:

Much of the media has already called the game’s outcome as a loss before we’ve reached half-time. Even though the scoreboard shows we’re winning.

Heh. Yes, they’re willing to call a war a quagmire as soon as the shooting starts, but they won’t call an election when they know the outcome.