Here's more from Smith:

News organizations last week in Tampa sought to project their brands with destinations: The Huffington Post Oasis and Politico Hub, along with the CNN and Bloomberg venues. These were all impressive operations: HuffPost's was a spa; Politico's hosted a series of newsy political events; and Bloomberg's high-minded, white-carpeted, and less newsy policy talks. But the CNN Grill -- a standard convention feature -- was the most impressive of them, the sort of clubhouse for the media and political class right between the Tampa Bay Times Forum and the media center, it was a full-scale sort of political sports bar constructed for free in a parking garage, complete with wood floor, full -- and open -- bar, free food, and giant screens.

Again, I don't mean to single out these organizations. Smith did and I'm just citing his work. There are plenty of other examples. But this level of frivolity, in 2012 especially, seems uncomfortably discordant when compared to the political and economic mood of the country. People are angry about politics and politicians. They are angry about the way the media cover politics and politicians. Can you blame them, in the face of spas and sports bars, in the face of the self-promotion, for perceiving some sort of unholy alliance between reporters and the people upon which they are supposed to be reporting?

Beyond the Beltway, across the Hudson River, in places where people don't have the time or energy to parse the nuances of the relationship between media organizations and political parties, the televised blending together of journalist and politician is a suspicious thing. By hosting these parties, by marketing their product, by branding their coverage, by buying into the concept of the politician as celebrity, the "watchdogs" are essentially saying to their flock: "Look at how well connected we are with the wolves we are here to protect you against!" Does that make you feel better protected? Me neither.

And why should it? As I wrote a few days ago, the media in Tampa did a terrible job last week covering the voting rights story as it unfolded in the courts -- a story expressly and directly connected to the Republicans' embrace of voter suppression laws all around the country. Is it too cheeky to wonder whether all the time and energy journalists spent on media marketing, all the time spent "to source up" (as Smith put it), was time and energy unspent on asking Republican leaders about why they are fighting so hard, in and out of court, to make it harder for poor voters to vote?

My point here is not to judge or bash the media for its coverage last week. There are media and political commentators who have far greater standing to do so-- I'd love to hear what James Fallows thinks, for example. My point is simply to say that reporters and news executives shouldn't scratch their heads and wonder why the next time a poll comes out and declares that the public has lost respect for journalists. They should instead remember that there is a price to be paid for this marketing, this branding, this embrace of the cult of political celebrity; a price far beyond all the millions already spent.