Andrew Cline, a journalism school professor at Missouri State University, puts out the challenge to professional journalists: When we get a chance to ask politicians something, we should be asking questions that tend to elicit information that actually matters to somebody:
Citizen journalists, bloggers, people who go to town hall meetings, usually ask substantive questions because–SUPRISE!!!–they are interested in governance–the stuff that affects their lives. When you're worried about health care or the moral direction of the country, it's damned hard to work up any interest at all in which candidate has raised more money this quarter or who's ahead in the polls in Iowa.
… professional political journalism isn't ready for this concept I call “critical reporting.” The pros won't be ready until they learn to do the very basic task of asking the kinds of questions that get the kind of information people actually want and need.