So if you follow politics, you may have caught this clip of GOP Veep hopeful Mark Sanford stumbling on the question "How are McCain's economic policies different from Bush's economic policies?"

The clip made the rounds on other news shows, to a lot of guffaws and "Well, this guy definitely ain't gonna be Veep now." jibes. And, okay...

Guffaw.

What I didn't hear is... well... How are McCain and Bush different?

Because obviously there are differences. McCain wants more restraint on spending. McCain is proposing lots of new policies that Bush has not. (The gas tax holiday, for instance.)

Last I checked, Wolf Blitzer owns a google. Why is he asking surrogates questions that he can easily look up and REPORT on himself?

And why are other NEWS shows running pieces focused on a surrogate gaffe without also REPORTING on the actual substance of the story.

I would call this new approach to news reporting NEWS REPORTING.

And I say this as an Obama supporter.