Whither investigative reporting? NPR's OTM editorial for 14 January
National Public Radio's On the Media programme, originated at WNYC every Friday, had a pretty grim editorial from Bob Garfield in its 14 January 2005 show about the likely fate of investigative reporting in the wake of the house-cleaning undertaken by CBS due to the 60 Minutes piece, aired on Wednesday, 8 September 2004, about "Dubya's" National Guard service.
The transcript can be found here; but here's a sample:
"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. 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.'
"Never mind that the administration's notion of answering to the public is, as we learned last week, to bribe columnists to print propaganda. Never mind the press's constitutional role as watchdog over every government in power. Never mind truth. The reality is O.J. was acquitted."
Ouch.
The transcript can be found here; but here's a sample:
"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. 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.'
"Never mind that the administration's notion of answering to the public is, as we learned last week, to bribe columnists to print propaganda. Never mind the press's constitutional role as watchdog over every government in power. Never mind truth. The reality is O.J. was acquitted."
Ouch.