News Hounds Ignore Red Meat in D.C., Gnaw on Bone in New York

Monday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing was just getting underway when the first reports came in: New York. Aircraft. Building.

Since 2001, any aircraft-vs.-building incident in New York is big news. So it was that mass media coverage of a helicopter crash-landing threw shade on the Democrats’ first salvo in an as-yet undeclared impeachment war.

The chopper incident, big story though it was for jittery New York, had none of the historical import of the Washington hearing, billed by the Democrats as the start of an education campaign for the American people. It was titled “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.”

Call it impeachment light.

When it became clear the Manhattan incident was not much more than a disturbing echo of 9/11, we kept waiting for at least one of the big 3 cable networks to switch coverage to Capitol Hill. None did.

Instead it was “game on” for the ultracompetitive media. Historical import be damned, we’re going to cover the New York story like a wet blanket.

Meanwhile, as broadcast on C-SPAN, the committee was hearing compelling testimony from former U.S. attorneys Joyce White Vance and Barbara McQuade, who lucidly explained why a presidential attempt to obstruct justice, if unpunished, undermines the rule of law in America.

“By seeking to curtail the [Russia] investigation,” McQuade declared, “President Trump committed an act that threatened the national security of this country.”

“I would be personally willing to indict this case and try this case,” Vance said.

The hearing’s star witness, John Dean, was less effective but weathered a storm of contempt from Republicans on the committee who gladly reminded him of his 45-year-old crimes in helping cover up for Richard Nixon in Watergate.

Too bad that so few people got to see them in action, but that was just the beginning. Monday’s event was the first of three high-profile “Lessons from the Mueller Report” hearings this week. Trump, Russian interference, obstruction of justice … stay tuned for much more of Mueller 101. Even if the only place you can find it is on C-SPAN.