And of course, no one in the media mentions the concept that perhaps a reporter getting death threats in response to a question might raise an issue of free speech (or free press). Now death threats are what you might reasonably call "reprisal." Of course, the life of a journalist at a "right wing rag" doesn't begin to compare in importance to Whoopi Goldberg's Slim Fast contract or Linda Ronstadt's Vegas gig, which of course have Constitutional protection far beyond what our little minds can comprehend. Can you imagine if Mrs. Bush told a NY Times reporter to "shove it" and justified her action by saying the NYT is just a "left wing rag"??? Incidentally, given that the topic of Mrs. Kerry's speech was the need for civility in political discourse, does she intend to reprimand these "supporters" who are sending death threats?
Plato characterized them as "Sophists", "superficial manipulators of rhetoric and dialectic". Some things never change.