Preening parrots?

But to ask for powers of scientific or sociological analysis from the preening parrots currently infesting American media is a pointless exercise. The time is long gone when American broadcasting could draw on the talents of foreign correspondents who honed their skills during the Second World War. Edward R Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Howard K Smith, and Walter Cronkite had a gravitas and stoic deliberativeness that seem a million miles away from the flirty smirkiness of the airheaded moppets and gym-sculpted pretty boys who now harangue us from the TV screen. [The Independent]

Hmmm, the term "preening parrots" might have application in the patent reform debate. However, the above concerned New Orleans:

But the national media took several days to adjust to the grim and now grotesque reality on the ground. At first, the smooth, exquisitely coiffed news anchors and their posturing on-site correspondents professed cheerful relief that Hurricane Katrina had passed by and spared picturesque New Orleans.

Hmmm, in patent reform, there are lots of suggestions to give the PTO more to do (e.g., oppositions, inequitable conduct) but not much discussion of how Congress has diverted funds from the PTO for over ten years and is not doing too much to end fee diversion in 2005.