The cleanest media change, literally and figuratively, took place on Monday, when Ari Fleischer said goodbye to his boss at the White House and the reporters in the White House press room.
When Ari landed at Andrews Air Force Base with President Bush after five days in Africa, he was met by a firefighter armed with a portable fire extinguisher who, in Air Force One tradition for retiring airmen, hosed him down, drenching his T-shirt and sweat pants. At first glance, or maybe at late blush, it looked as though the press secretary might have got too close to those rutting elephants in Africa.
A poll suggests that Americans would like to hose down a lot of the men and women who deliver the news, to wash away bias, a lack of respect for the public and pervasive blame-America-first instincts.
Seventy percent in a poll of 1,201 adults by the Pew Research Center say they want news organizations to show a "decidedly 'pro-American'" viewpoint. While 36 percent say the press "usually gets facts straight," 62 percent are suspicious that the press covers up its mistakes.
More than half - 51 percent - say there's liberal bias, and 26 percent say there's a tilt to the right. Most of those polled approve of the war coverage in the Middle East, and most say they're tired of Hillary Clinton, or at least reading about her.
(Well, who isn't?)
The most curious summer story of change is in entertainment television. Jordan Levin, president of WB Entertainment, described as "thinking like a teenager," announced a name change for "Tarzan and Jane." In the future it will be called merely "Tarzan" because Tarzan's too much of a hunk to be stuck with the same plain Jane. "Why would he be with only one woman?" asks Levin, who wants his sleaze to attract young, hip, sexy stars with "core traditional values." (Say what?)
If Howell Raines were still at the New York Times, this might be sociology for the front page. Bill Keller's readers under 40 may have to hunt for it.