The best defense is a good offense...look at NBC!
4) NBC Nightly News highlighted how the CBS panel found no
evidence of liberal political bias behind the hit job on President
Bush and the newscast featured an "In Their Own Words" segment
from Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute who declared: "I don't
think bias was a factor in what went wrong." But on MSNBC's
Hardball, Chris Matthews quoted Don Hewitt, the Executive Producer
of 60 Minutes until May of last year, as conceding during a Monday
meeting at CBS: "Does anybody really think there wouldn't have
been more scrutiny if this had been about John Kerry?"
On ABC's World News Tonight, Brian Ross brought up a finding I
didn't see highlighted elsewhere: "The investigation says, while
Rather played a small role in the original report, he played a
large role in trying to defend the indefensible, often blaming the
right wing."
Richard Thornburgh: "He mischaracterized the source, referred
to him as 'unimpeachable,' when it's well-known in the background
of this particular source was a lot of bias and a lot of reason to
pause."
Lisa Myers stressed on the January 10 NBC Nightly News:
"Despite long-time accusations of liberal bias at CBS, the panel,
which includes a former Republican Attorney General, found no
evidence this story was driven by a political agenda."
Richard Thornburgh, former Attorney General: "We did find,
however, an insensitivity to appearances, so most of the sources
for this story had a strong anti-President Bush agenda of their
own."
Myers: "The panel also said producer Mary Mapes' contact with
the Kerry campaign about the story was inappropriate and created
an appearance of political bias."
NBC Nightly News followed up with an "In Their Own Words"
segment from Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute. He contended:
"Many accuse CBS News of bias, of ideological bias and political
bias. The situation is probably unique to some degree because of
the case history. There has been tension between Dan Rather and
the Bush family."
George H.W. Bush, in 1988 confrontation with Dan Rather: "How
would you like it if I judge your career by those seven minutes
when you walked off the set in New York?"
Steele: "I don't think bias was a factor in what went wrong. I
think it was a failure of skill, a failure of standards, and a
failure of journalistic oversight." |
