What's this--accountability? 'Liberal elite' media rolls heads.

Journalistic standards...the concept has become a laughingstock in this era of FoxNews and right-wing radio. But what about the so-called “liberal elite” media? What are their standards?

(Caveat: I don’t know what the “liberal elite” media is supposed to be. I’ve never found the mainstream TV or print outlets to be very liberal, at least not politically. This is worsened by the FoxNews/RW-radio approach of using the phrase regularly to refer to some unspecified “them” that’s out there somewhere...)

If CBS is the “liberal elite” media, then they just showed that the “liberal elite” media is, standards-wise, miles above the partisan dreck of certain cable outlets (hello Fox, Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly, et al).

CBS just fired four employees who worked on the Killian Memo story for 60 Minutes Wednesday, based on an independent investigation’s findings. Add that to Dan Rather’s stepping down as anchor and you get five heads rolled...

...for a story where nothing has yet been proven wrong!

That’s right. The investigation (lead by two people who have no interest in making CBS look good: former CEO of the Associate Press Louis Boccardi and former GOP Attorney General Dick Thornburgh) also found that there is no proof that the Killian Memo is a fraud. They simply could not prove it either way. So as it stands, five heads may have rolled over a true story.

I wonder how many heads rolled at FoxNews and MSNBC for all that Swift Boats Vets baloney? NONE of that stuff was verified, and ALL of it was proven FALSE. It was definitely rushed onto the airwaves 24/7 without being vetted.

Heads? Resignations? Apologies? Rush? O’Reilly? Matthews?

Of course not. For the most part, they did what they intended to do: smear Kerry under the pretense of covering a “story”. Journalistic standards didn’t mean squat.

Some will argue that the report is wrong in its conclusion that CBS is guilty of being over-zealous but not of political bias. Well, that's not what matters anyway. What matters is that the FACTS of the story are as likely true as false.


SIDEBAR: One source
in the Killian Memo story adamantly argues that the independent report is so full of lies and inaccuracies that he goes in depth to clear up his name and the facts. He makes some very compelling arguments.