Hair!

"Those random mentions of the haircut in the midst of news reports really add up: a Nexis search for "John Edwards and haircut and $400" returns 894 results -- it may well be above 900 by the time you read this. Some of those results, like John Solomon's landmark piece of haircut journalism, are news stories devoted to nothing but the pressing topic of Edwards' hair. But many simply treat "$400 haircut" as though it is Edwards' middle name, or his prior profession -- a key part of his biography that must be included in every article. On June 1, for example, the wire service UPI began what was billed as an "analysis" of Edwards' energy plan with a reference to ... $400 haircuts. When The Washington Post profiled local barbershops on May 20, the article began by questioning the "propriety of John Edwards's two $400 Beverly Hills haircuts." When NBC chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski spoke May 1 before the Rhode Island Business Expo (in exchange for $30,000 from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce), he talked about Iraq, about al Qaeda, about the Bush administration's response to the September 11 attacks -- and he told his audience that John Edwards is a "loser." Why? The haircut, of course."

"If the leading Republican candidates were held to the same standard, every news report that mentions Romney or McCain or Thompson or Giuliani wanting to make the Bush tax cuts permanent would include a sentence like this: "Romney's support of tax policies that overwhelmingly benefit the superrich -- like Mitt Romney -- may remind middle class Americans that he is not one of them." You've probably never seen an article like that. But if the media's approach to John Edwards were applied to the conservative candidates, you'd see it every day. (Instead, Romney's incredible wealth and large house, when mentioned, is portrayed as a "valuable asset" to his campaign.)

News reports about Rudy Giuliani making security issues a centerpiece of his campaign would note his decision to put New York's emergency response center in the World Trade Center complex -- one of the few places in America that had recently been the target of a terrorist attacks. Not once or twice -- hundreds of times. The absurdity of Giuliani's choice of Bernard Kerik to run the NYPD -- and, later, his lobbying of President Bush to put Kerik in charge of Homeland Security -- would be constantly invoked by journalists as something that undermines his security credentials and judgment. Instead, he is regularly declared "America's Mayor" and the "Hero of 9-11."