Well, if you define a day loosely.

Anyway, Joel Connelly started things off yesterday expressing his undying fondness for the crew at the Stranger.

David Postman followed it up today with a lengthy, public chiding of Josh Feit for playing self-perpetuating rumor mill rather than reporter. In some fairness to Feit's blogging, he followed-up by covering some harsh criticisms from the King County Republican Party toward the Democrats who bought into Feit's original random thoughts. Even at that though, Feit didn't do much of substance to defend himself against Postman's critique.

While we're at it then, allow me to pile on as well with a complaint. Eli Sanders had a post today that essentially comes down to parroting a Democratic Party press release. Sanders highlights this YouTube clip, ironically posted originally by John McCain's camp, supposedly catching Mitt Romney in an abortion contortion:

Romney's campaign promptly posted the full press conference, which shows him emphasizing his pro-life position in vetoing a specific embryonic stem cell research bill, while restating his commitment to hold to a pledge to the citizens of Massachusetts that he would not alter existing state laws on abortion.

Romney also responded directly himself on the Michael Medved show, which is an easier summation than watching the dueling press conference clips:

What Sanders' copy-cat post didn't convey was how totally flat the McCain campaign's original attack of selected editing fell. One could even argue the attack backfired in full - something Sanders didn't mention in his post in his apparent glee to see a Republican confronted with the flip-flop label that doomed John Kerry.

This compilation of reaction from center-to-right pundits showed the attack quickly became a negative for the attacker, not the attackee. Instead of instigating a round of negative coverage on Romney, the weak attack promptly led to questions of McCain's desperation, as demonstrated by comments from Rich Lowry and by hostile questions from the media at McCain's subsequent press avail.

Thus, the danger of posting what amounts to a glorified party press release, which the Slog has fallen victim to in the past. Any blogger - left, right, or otherwise - should be castigated for such poor form. Such attack screeds for party apparatuses have a place in politics. But they very rarely provide new facts or fresh analysis that make them newsworthy, or even bloggable in their own right.

I actually like the Stranger. They fill nicely the role of the edgy, alternative paper; spouting an almost obnoxious liberalism that's actually entertaining. But the tarted-up party press release posts do nothing but degrade the Slog's product.