A CBS correction of its dowdification? Don’t hold your breath
Rathergate.com
You’ve heard the tired anti-blog arguments from the MSM time and time again. Everyone all together now: The blogosphere is unedited and therefore inaccurate, and bloggers have no pressure to correct errors, unlike the legitimate information gatekeepers of the MSM.
A week has now gone by since The CBS Evening News misquoted former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr about the GOP’s “nuclear option” regarding Democratic filibuster of judicial nominees. Let’s check if CBS corrected the record. But first, a little background.
Ace reporter Gloria Borger said that even “conservative icon” Kenneth Starr opposes getting rid of the judicial filibuster. Starr said in a video snippet, “This is a radical, radical departure from our history and from our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government.” The entire transcript of Borger’s story can be found at the Media Research Center.
The problem is, the GOP was not in Starr’s sights. In an e-mail to The Corner at National Review, he said he was referring to “the practice of invoking judicial philosophy as a grounds for voting against a qualified nominee of integrity and experience.”
In short, CBS dowdified Starr’s quote, i.e. CBS edited a statement to misrepresent the speaker’s position. The term “dowdification” is named for New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who unethically edited a quote from President Bush. (Here is a great explanation from the Lufkin (Texas) Daily News, which dropped Dowd’s column because of it.)
lufkindailynews.com!-506040978?urac=n&urvf=11161937199870.9339559589785252
Some blogs are buzzing that CBS didn’t make a mistake — superblogger Mickey Kaus, whom I respect deeply, cites a Nightline interview in which Starr opposes the “nuclear option” of changing the filibuster rule. I respectfully disagree that this exonerates Borger’s reporting — she still took her Starr interview out of context, regardless of his prior statements.
So, without further ado, let’s check the story on CBS News.com. Lookee here — no correction or editor’s note.
Okay, let’s see if they added a disclaimer to their video clip of Starr’s interview. Nope, no luck here, either.
I’ll give CBS News the benefit of the doubt and check the corrections/clarifications page for a note from a producer. The CBS Evening News page turns up empty, but a small correction at the bottom gives me hope that the corrupt agency does in fact fix mistakes.
But wait a minute … it appears as if CBS News does not have a corrections section. A site-wide search for “correction,” “clarification,” “correcting the record” and other phrases yields no results. Oh, this is just too good.
CBS’ blunder has made it to The Associated Press, which pretty much guarantees that newspapers and Websites worldwide are getting it wrong as we speak. On the other side of the story, The Mobile Register blasts CBS News as being “up to its old tricks.”
Old tricks, indeed. So much for the fresh start and the new day promised us by Les Moonves following Memogate. Same crap, different day, no corrections. But look on the bright side — at least Borger’s story didn’t kill anyone.
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