Age of Reason

CBS News Publishes Flat-Out Lies About Atrios

David Paul Kuhn of CBSnews reported yesterday on the anti-Daschle bloggers who were secretly being paid by his Republican opponent. In what appears to be another case of false press "balance", they went on to manufacture, out of whole cloth, the story that Atrios was secretly blogging under the pay of a political campaign.

Hypothetically, if The Washington Post discovered that The New York Times had a reporter being paid by the Bush campaign it would report it. If proven, the suspect reporter would be fired and likely never work in mainstream journalism again. Hence, the courts have been satisfied with the industry’s ability to regulate itself.

In the case of Duncan Black, this is what happened. The author of the popular liberal blog Atrios, Black wrote under a pseudonym. All the while, he was a senior fellow at a liberal media watchdog group, Media Matters for America.

But wait -- where are they getting this crap? Their phrase "this is what happened" makes a very clear assertion. But Media Matters isn't a political campaign. And, to quote Atrios

You state that I had been working with Media Matters for America "all along" while I was doing this weblog. I began writing this weblog in April, 2002. MMFA only came into existence in May, 2004. I began working with them in June, 2004.
...
Finally, a quote is positioned in your article such that it suggests my assocation with Media Matters for America makes me somehow "partisan" and that beforehand I therefore was perceived as non-partisan. I have never worked for a candidate or campaign, though I have never made my political views secret, any more than has the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. This blog is produced entirely using my own time and resources, and Media Matters for America is a non-partisan "501(c)(3) not-for-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."

What's more, while I believe Atrios did eventually work for the DNC, this would have been openly, later in the summer, after he made his identity public.

Let's be perfectly clear: CBS are biased, right-wing hacks. Sloppiness, while is may also be present, is no excuse.

posted by conchis @ 1:51 AM