My Letter to On The Media

In the extended entry (click below) is the letter I wrote to OTM regarding my post below.

Any bets on whether I get a response?

Here goes:

In re your "Chilled Out" piece, about Rathergate: This piece was so over-the-top in its systematic dishonesty that I had to double-check to make sure it wasn't an over-broad parody.

The Garfield piece states that the Thornburgh/Boccardi report found no evidence of political bias. But Bob Garfield never mentioned that the commission didn't *look* for any evidence of bias, either. Garfield's statement implies a conclusion that doesn't exist.

The piece was chock full of other inaccuracies (the TANG allegations, the Boston Globe and AP pieces were pretty seriously questioned at the very least as well), but the overall sense the piece presents is that it's the *media* and the *Democrats* that are the victims in this scandal - that catching a major network letting "journalistic standards" slip, again and again, (inevitably in stories going after Republicans) is actually a GOP conspiracy to conquer the media. This reeks of whining at best, dishonesty at worst.

Bob Garfield is blowing smoke up his Volvo-driving audience's free-range Alpaca skirts.

I'm a blogger, one of the "scoundrels and screwups who delivered that impunity on a silver platter"; I co-host a weekend talk show with two of the drivers of this story, "Time's" bloggers of the year John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson. This piece would be a puff piece if it came from an overtly-biased op-ed columnist; that it comes from NPR's putative media "criticism" show is comically galling.

Finally - I'd like to invite Mr Garfield to come on our program. We air every Saturday from noon-3PM central time. Please let us know; we'd love to discuss OTM's take on this issue.

Having written many a "letter to the editor" to NPR over the years, I know better than to expect an answer.

Believe it or not, a regular listener,

Mitch Berg
www.shotinthedark.info