Journalism, Campaign Hackery. What's the Difference?

Funny Columbia Journalism Review interview with the Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, about his time on the payroll of GOP presidential candidate John McCain:

KK: So now you're back at The Weekly Standard. Can we expect to see something from you with the inside scoop on the final days of the McCain campaign?

MG: I don't think there's an appetite for it. I think the truth will out at some point. If the media was remotely competent, it would have reported that story by now. It's a great process story, which is what the media loved most.

KK: Now that you're back in journalism, is there a conflict of interest in covering anything relating to the McCains and the campaign?

MG: We have an agenda at The Weekly Standard. It's overt. McCain was fairly well in line with that agenda, out of all the candidates. I think it's ridiculous when you see the stuff on the other side. Jay Carney is going to be the communications director for the vice president. I mean, Time is not supposed to be an ideological magazine. I don't have a problem with that, either, but when people got bent out of shape with me going over there—this wasn't a major shift for me. This was the same thing as before.

I've written plenty on the McCain/Weekly Standard connection over the years; begin here.