The Murdoch phone-hacking scandal is billed as British tabloids run amok, and the US media seems fixed on the “Gosh, I’m glad that could never happen here” storyline. Sadly, the phone-hacking label is a misstatement — that’s the symptom, but the problem is deeper. Behind the phone-hacking, however, are the revelations of the incestuous nature of politicians and journalists in the world of British politics and media.

And that, my friends, is a well-accepted part of the DC world. See “Russert, Tim” or “Mitchell, Andrea (Mrs Alan Greenspan)” or “White House Correspondents Dinner” or . . .

You get the idea. I just wish the Media Villagers did.

If off-the-record is to mean anything, anywhere, ever again, no public figure should trust Eleanor Clift again, ever.