Unique Relationships

“There are always some sort of, let’s just say, unique relationships that happen when you live in Washington,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s the culture of that town.”… He said Ms. Van Susteren did “not necessarily” have to disclose on television that her husband had worked with Ms. Palin. — NYT quoting Bill Shine, the executive vice president for programming, FOX News)

Credit the NYT for taking dead aim at Greta for serving as First Dude’s handler during the (weekend of the) White House Correspondents Dinner, escorting him to the lead up garden party, the dinner itself and an after-party. (Above we see the two arriving together at the main event.) Having also provided Palin with an uncritical TV platform, Van Susteren flaunts a conflict of interest given her lawyer husband’s professional involvement with the Palins.

That being the case, this photo and others (1, 2, 3) from that weekend are not just Washington glitterati shots. They represent visual evidence, above and beyond the connectivity and comraderie between media and government, of ethical collapse. If there were any number of photos that night of political figures with media players, those photos did not represent this kind of hand holding.

(image: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images. May 9, 2009 in Washington, DC)