From PressThink: (thanks, Kevin!)

Karl Rove and the Religion of the Washington Press

"Savviness--that quality of being shrewd, practical, well-informed, perceptive, ironic, 'with it,' and unsentimental in all things political--is, in a sense, their professional religion. They make a cult of it. And it was this cult that Karl Rove understood and exploited for political gain."

Conservatives think the ideology of the Washington press corps is liberal. Liberals think the press is conservative in the sense of protecting its place in the political establishment. Karl Rove once said that the press is “less liberal than it is oppositional.” (A fascinating remark coming from Rove, since it apppears to put him at odds with the conservative base.)

Whereas I believe that the real -- and undeclared -- ideology of American journalism is savviness, and this is what made the press so vulnerable to the likes of Karl Rove.

Savviness! Deep down, that’s what reporters want to believe in and actually do believe in— their own savviness and the savviness of certain others (including operators like Karl Rove.) In politics, they believe, it’s better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere or humane.

Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.) Savviness—that quality of being shrewd, practical, well-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political—is, in a sense, their professional religion. They make a cult of it. And it was this cult that Karl Rove understood and exploited for political gain.

What is the truest mark of savviness? Winning, of course! Everyone knows that the press admires an unprincipled winner.

Way, wa-a-a-a-y back when, at some point in the late 1980s, I went to a journalism convention. And while I was there, I heard what I immediately recognized as a truism about political reporting.

"Journalists," said one panelist, choosing his words carefully, "admire those who know how to play the game."

Nothing I've encountered in my nearly 20 years in the business since has convinced me that statement isn't true.

Former Toronto Star publisher John Honderich gives an example of the deteriorating state of press freedom in Rwanda. And a very trivial one it is, which makes the matter all the more disturbing.

Why, oh why, oh why, would anyone treat an online poll like a scientifically-conducted one? The Globe and Mail's Ivor Tossell was wondering much the same thing.

He spent much time looking at the debacle of the "Worst Canadian" poll conducted by the Beaver, a history magazine, and how the media treated its findings.

From Marc Ambinder's blog at The Atlantic website:

Boy, did Karl Rove get in his gut the biases, predilections, worldviews, habits, ticks and insecurities of the national media. The first Bush campaign -- and the administration in the first few years -- consciously worked the press as simply another agent of influence. Another part of Rove's realignment theory: delegitimize, decertify and discombobulate the press; control it with psychological power; reduce its influence on the political process.

Rove in particular knew how to massage the egos of high-powered analysts, and these Rove hagiographers ought to be ready to evaluate Rove, now, in the twilight of the career. But it's to Rove's credit as a political strategist that he so deftly managed the press. (Disclosure: I met Rove twice and had an extended conversation with him only once; we never e-mailed or spoke on the telephone. I was not among the chosen few, although I may well have fallen for his charms had I been.)

(h/t to Inkless Wells)

An NYT look at Rove's legacy made these findings:

... Mr. Rove has to a considerable extent changed the way presidential politics are played. Modeled on his example, campaigns have become more disciplined in driving simple, often negative messages. They begin in trying to identify the vulnerabilities of potential opponents, and they do extensive negative research as they prepare to exploit those vulnerabilities early and often. ...

“The biggest thing he has done campaign-wise is message discipline: focusing relentlessly on one thing and driving it home,” said Alex Castellanos, a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.