Back in January, you may remember, I was holding my breath
to see if Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to make an attack on the
news media a winning strategy in the Florida primary would
work (see “A Kick in the Pants” in The New Criterion of
February, 2008)—or, failing that, if it would have any
effect at all. Then I doubted that any good could come of
such a move, but I had allowed myself to hope and was
therefore disappointed when Mr. Giuliani’s lack of
“momentum,” that most prized journalistic commodity of all
successful primary candidates, proved far more momentous
than his slap at the media. The media had, apart from the
isolated article I saw, declined even to notice—let alone
respond to—it, and Mr. Giuliani’s effort to gain electoral
lift by picking a fight with what opinion polls show is one
of the most disliked institutions in America died a-borning.

Yet maybe I was only a little premature in my hopes. Maybe
the new dawn was only a bit further off, and the
revolutionary leader who was prepared to take on the media
monolith was someone else—someone unexpected. Well, at
least if The New York Times is to be believed—admittedly,
a pretty big “if”—that seems to be the case. And the new
Lenin arriving at the Finland Station? None other, according
to the Times, than Hillary Clinton. Written off by the
media again and again as the potential Democratic nominee,
Mrs. Clinton finally took aim at