Tough to be a Journalist These Days

It must be tough these days to be a reporter. You want to do all you can to support President Obama, but sometimes that means holding your tongue, biting your lip, and suppressing all of your journalistic instincts. Case in point, this amusing article in the Washington Post about Michelle Obama's trip to a farmers' market:

Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale...

There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.

So far so good, the author is keeping it together. The author's instincts for a good story can't be fully suppressed, however. In this case, it's a clear "Let them eat cake!" moment:

The first lady said the market would particularly appeal to federal employees in nearby buildings to "pick up some good stuff for dinner." Yet even they might think twice about spending $3 for a pint of potatoes when potatoes are on sale for 40 cents a pound at Giant. They could get nearly five dozen eggs at Giant for the $5 Obama spent for her dozen.

Imagine if you will a Republican first lady out there in a middle of a recession paying $3 for a pint of potatoes and 5 times the normal price for eggs! Twenty dollars a pound for kale is also mentioned.

I suspect the reporter misses those good old days, when he would have torn into this story like a hungry dog on a piece of red meat.