Lipstick On A Pig

NPR's "Eye On The Media" is, purportedly, public radio's media watchdog program.

More like a yapping little Jack Russell, as we see in their transcript of the Memogate fallout.

Money quote:

BOB GARFIELD: Well, okay. We have the answers. Or, at least, some of them. According to the independent investigation of Memogate, CBS News rushed to the air with a haphazardly reported story about the president's National Guard Service without knowing if the memos cited in the story were real or fake. The tally of repercussions: four producers fired, Dan Rather giving up his evening news anchor chair, and cackles of delight from the political right, who claim vindication in their mantra that CBS News and the like have it in for the president and the GOP.

"I think," said Republican political consultant Keith Apple, "it's a warning to the rest of the media." Yeah. A warning. "Straighten up and fly...right."

Well, don't expect the Fox Newsification of CBS, but also don't expect that shelved 60 Minutes report on the bogus Iraq-Niger uranium deal to air any time soon.

Got that? CBS gets caught with its pants down - and according to Bob Garfield, it's CBS and the left that are the victims!

It's worth noting that the panel found no evidence of political bias -- just shoddy reporting in the race for a big scoop.

It'd also be worth noting, for NPR's alpaca-clad, Volvo-driving, Wellstone-worshipping masses, that the Thornburgh/Boccardi report never really looked into the issue; Garfield's exculpation is a bit premature. It's also worth noting that the underlying story about favoritism for Lieutenant George Bush during the Vietnam War has been amply documented by other news organizations --notably the Boston Globe and Associated Press. It's also worth noting that the Memogate investigation itself never determined that the disputed memos were forged.And, of course, it's also been amply refuted, and when Garfield says the report "never determined" the memos were forged, it was in the sense of "didn't say it in as many words".

Doesn't really matter. What the public will see is smoking gun evidence of media bias, which means that any lies and misdeeds of the GOP, when exposed by an occasionally vigilant press, can be more easily dismissed.

No. What we're seeing here is Bob Garfield blowing smoke up his comfortably liberal audience's skirts.

It's the modified O.J. defense -- it's the "bias" card. Pay no attention to my footprints, my flight from prosecution and the victims' blood in my car -- you're out to get me because I'm..."Republican."

Let's turn this around. What is Bob Garfield doing? Trying to turn the very real debunking of the documents - a spectacular piece of group journalism - into a mob of peasants with pitchforks and torches, all politics and no fact.

Never mind that the administration's notion of answering to the public is, as we learned last week, to bribe columnists to print propaganda.

Is Bob Garfield suggesting Armstrong Williams is connected to Memogate?

Never mind the press's constitutional role as watchdog over every government in power. Never mind truth. The reality is O.J. was acquitted.

"Never Mind the Truth". A perfect subtitle to this piece.

It's hard to know whom to resent more, the Bush administration, now freer than ever to hide from public scrutiny or the scoundrels and screwups who delivered that impunity on a silver platter.

I had to check the URL to make sure this piece wasn't an over-the-top parody. Check for yourself.

To Bob Garfield, it's the media and Democrats who are the victims in Rathergate. This is their version of being media critics.

This is your tax dollar in action.

Posted by Mitch at January 25, 2005 05:23 AM | TrackBack