A Spork in the Drawer

Another Smear Job

You might remember last week when CBS News' Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan appeared on "The Daily Show" and basically bashed the US news media for failing to cover the mess in Iraq. Since any coverage of the war that is less than Rah Rah USA! USA! USA! is anathema to the rightists it should come as no surprise that...

The story was strictly about allegations involving Logan's personal life. It was quickly picked up by some other outlets, some surprising, like the Huffington Post, and some not surprising at all. In fact, the story was splashed across the front page of this morning's New York Post, the tabloid that is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is also owner of (among many things) the Fox News Channel, the leading producer of braindead pro-war journalism that is the exact opposite of Logan's groundbreaking work. You'd also be shocked, I'm sure, to learn that the Post article is linked on the highly popular, conservative leaning Drudge Report. I'm not going to link to the articles -- use "the Google" if you must -- but to give you a flavor of this important news story, the Post cover shows a smiling Logan over the large headline, "Sexty Minutes."

...As the Post notes in the one part of the article that I will mention, it's a saga that "first broke on the freerepublic.com in December."

The freerepublic.com? As in, the ultraconservative Web site where reporters and photojournalists who report truthfully from Iraq are frequently attacked or smeared. Indeed, it seems that attacks on Logan in the right-wing blogopshere are nothing new -- last year, conservative Michelle Malkin falsely charged that "Haifa Street" story contained footage provided by al-Qaeda.

Will notes that unlike most of the these rightwing smear jobs this one is being picked up by the mainstream "news" media.

Logan would do well to remember NBC's Ashleigh Banfield: In 2003 Banfield gave a speech criticizing the media's war coverage and was not long after fired by infuriated network execs.

Will concludes:

But the timing here really stinks. Is this just another low-grade tabloid scandal -- or a message to journalists who dare to criticize big corporate media's growing blackout on news from Iraq?

Here's Logan on TDS:

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Indeed

CBS News' Chief Foreign Correspondent, Lara Logan, on "The Daily Show" last night:

Stewart: Do you watch the news that we’re watching?

Logan: No

Stewart: …in the United States? Do you see what we’re hearing about the war? So, we might actually know everything?

Logan: If I were to watch the news that you hear in the United States—I’d just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts.

'nuff said.

(Video at link.)

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The Assault On Reason

Time has an interesting excerpt from Al Gore's upcoming book, The Assault on Reason. (An apt title if there's ever been one.) I enjoyed this bit about our "liberal" media:

And what if an individual citizen or group of citizens wants to enter the public debate by expressing their views on television? Since they cannot simply join the conversation, some of them have resorted to raising money in order to buy 30 seconds in which to express their opinion. But too often they are not allowed to do even that. MoveOn.org tried to buy an ad for the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast to express opposition to Bush's economic policy, which was then being debated by Congress. CBS told MoveOn that "issue advocacy" was not permissible. Then, CBS, having refused the MoveOn ad, began running advertisements by the White House in favor of the president's controversial proposal. So MoveOn complained, and the White House ad was temporarily removed. By temporarily, I mean it was removed until the White House complained, and CBS immediately put the ad back on, yet still refused to present the MoveOn ad.

As a service to you, dear reader, I will continue to search for evidence of this "liberal" media we hear so much about but, to be honest, I'm not optimistic about finding any.

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Double Standards

Greg has more on CBS's firing of Gen. John Batiste as a consultant.

Even Joe Klein thinks it's outrageous.

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ADDED: Yet another example of CBS's hypocrisy.

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Batiste

Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste has been fired by CBS for his appearance in the VoteVets ad.

KO interviewed Gen. Batiste last night:

Remember, boys and girls: CBS "News" is part of the "liberal media."

VoteVets.org

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Getting The Story Out

CBS:

One would assume that [Lara] Logan, as CBS chief foreign correspondent, has a fair amount of influence as to what stories she gets to cover, and that most of her important stories, once produced and delivered, will be broadcast. But when the story comes out of the mean streets of Baghdad, and doesn’t fit the officially-sanctioned narrative of Iraqis and US soldiers working arm in arm to help protect thankful Iraqi citizens, even chief foreign correspondents sometimes need to ask for help in getting it seen. Imagine our surprise recently when–over the digital transom–we received a copy of an email from a frustrated Lara Logan.

Logan's e-mail:

From: lara logan Subject: help

The story below only appeared on our CBS website and was not aired on CBS. It is a story that is largely being ignored, even though this istakingplace verysingle day in central Baghdad, two blocks from where our office is located.

Our crew had to be pulled out because we got a call saying they were about to be killed, and on their way out, a civilian man was shot dead in front of them as they ran.

I would be very grateful if any of you have a chance to watch this story and pass the link on to as many people you know as possible. It should be seen. And people should know about this.

If anyone has time to send a comment to CBS – about the story – not about my request, then that would help highlight that people are interested and this is not too gruesome to air, but rather too important to ignore.

Many, many thanks.

The report. (Note: RealPlayer required)

[Via The General.]

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UPDATE: In comments, NorthJK says "most" of the footage aired last night on CBS. Still, the vid is worth spreading around to a wider audience.

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