Hillary vs. Barack! That goes above the fold, right?

“Wait until you hear the red-hot remarks that set this grudge match in motion!”
Hey, Blitzer, that sounds bad! What’s the story?
Actually, not much. In announcing his support for Senator Barack Obama's bid for the White House, Hollywood music and movie mogul David Geffen leveled some criticism against Senator Hillary Clinton, the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. In an
interview with New York Times Op-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd, Geffen made some thoughtless, but accurate, comments about the New York Senator:
“I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together.”
That bastard! He referred to Senator Clinton as polarizing, smart and ambitious?!? Wait a minute...I guess I don't really have an argument there. Like it or not, Senator Clinton is polarizing. People don’t like her for a myriad of reasons: her initial support for the war, the failed health care proposal under her husband‘s presidency, and her seeming inability to connect with mainstream America just to name a few. There are so many reasons people don’t care for Hillary that it isn’t even necessary to point out the two main factors: she’s a Clinton, and she’s female. The second "criticism", that Senator Clinton is ambitious, is also right on the money. My only problem here is the implicit notion that it’s unacceptable because she’s a woman. I mean, is she any more ambitious (or, shall we say, audacious) than a freshman senator who has decided that he's qualified to run for President of the Untied States? Obviously not.
So, Geffen no longer supports the Clinton dynasty and feels that Hillary herself is a polarizing, ambitious figure - he’s certainly not alone there. The comment wasn’t particularly well thought out, but it was (I assume) his honest opinion. Sadly, over the course of the day the media's framing of the issue shifted. It moved from the simple comments of a Hollywood fundraiser to an all out war between Senators Obama and Clinton. Correctly recognizing an opportunity to play the victim, Senator Clinton issued a statement calling on Senator Obama to “cut ties” with Geffen and return the $2300 personal donation he had made to Senator Obama’s campaign after today’s “vicious attack.” That overblown statement was jumped on by the major news networks, prompting an entire evening’s worth of coverage pitting the candidates against each other.
True, we live in a country where more people watched American Idol than the President’s State of the Union address, so maybe most of us shouldn’t exactly be expecting more. But, for those of us who do make the effort to stay informed, isn't it only reasonable that we can expect the information we’re offered on the news to be of a higher standard? Central to the day's coverage has been the news media's hypocritical calls on the candidates to act professionally and respectfully. CNN - I humbly request that you do the same.