Here’s Paul Krugman on the media and its collective conclusion that Paul Ryan has serious ideas:

“. . . a large part of the commentariat decided early on that they were going to cast Ryan in the role of Serious Honest Conservative, and have been very unwilling to reconsider that casting call in the light of evidence.”

It still astonishes me that the Washington press corps ignores facts when those facts differ from its chosen narrative. I’ll never forget the savaging it gave Al Gore based on lies, or its willingness to ignore the testimony of veterans who’d been with John Kerry in Vietnam in favor of a right-wing Texas millionaire’s pet liars.

We occasionally hear from the right-wing extremists like Limbaugh and Hannity and the lesser lights in the talk radio universe that liberals should be purged from America. While that’s unlikely, I wouldn’t be averse to a forced retirement of reporters, broadcasters and pundits at age 50 or so. New blood would be welcomed.

Steve Benen has a terrific blog post about this phenomenon today, with lots of links. It’s recommended reading.