Liberal D.C. writer explains how Mark Halperin's assault on our politics was even worse than the perv stuff

What made the revelation of Mark Halperin's perviness somewhat surprising is that he always came across as a fairly dull, straightlaced guy. We now know he was anything but that, his on-air persona suggested he was something of a "voice of reason" when it came to discussing politics. Former New Republic writer Eve Fairbanks has a very different perspective on that, and I want to share it with you because she's speaking to an issue that has bothered me for a very long time. It's about how so much of what passes as reporting in the political world is in fact little more than trivia and gossip - things presented as monumentally important when in fact they are nothing of the sort.