There was an odd moment during the White House press briefing on Wednesday when Robert Gibbs "pleaded guilty" to feeding "counterproductive" cable news chatter by engaging with Rush Limbaugh and other media personalities.
The press secretary was asked about the small but growing backlash among political observers over the White House's strategy of elevating Limbaugh, Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli and others as the face of the administration's opposition. From a campaign that consistently derided the talking heads of the commentariat, was this not hypocritical?
"It may be counterproductive," Gibbs replied. "I'll give you that. Are there days when I just turn my television off, yes... Look, there are days where your head drops from listening to arguments that aren't necessarily centered on some important issue, but finding two people at completely opposite ends of the spectrum to yell the loudest for a seven minute segment before they go on to something else."
Shouldn't the White House -- if this is their sentiment of the news media culture -- avoid putting more of a spotlight on the main culprits?