Wednesday, May 04, 2005

CBS' Bob Schieffer: Unfair and unbalanced


(Picture credit Tcho.ch - results of an image search for 'Schieffer'!)
Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsIf you thought CBS' talking heads would at least make an effort at a little political balance, you'd be wrong. And if you thought CBS would lighten up on the Bush administration -- and the GOP in general -- you'd be wrong. Dead wrong.

Let me give you a few sounds bites from CBS anchor Bob Schieffer's appearance on the Don Imus show this morning:

WMD. Iraq. Things getting worse, not better. Vietnam. Bodybags.

That's the gist. Put simply, phrases pitched straight from John Kerry's talking points memo distributed in, what, October? Can't someone change Schieffer's teleprompter?

Of course, Schieffer neglected any mention that another senior Al Qaeda leader was just captured. And he couldn't find time to report that Saddam's nephew, was nabbed: a major financier and director of insurgent operations, according to reports. Nephew Hussein was discovered in the briar patch of a giant weapons cache, but I suppose that's not newsworthy.

Things are getting bad for CBS when even the Guardian, yes, the staunch, leftmost bastion of Europe, states that, "perhaps the neocons got it right in the Middle East.".

You'd think even Schieffer -- or at least his pointy-headed bosses at CBS -- would be coming around. A little balance might improve the ratings. And, heaven knows, it might attract some of those middle-of-the-road viewers who departed in droves when disgraced ex-anchor Dan Rather drowned in a sea of blinking GIF files.

But, no, Schieffer went on to predict that Rep. Delay was going to go down in flames. Though it now appears that fat-cat lobbyists like Abrahamoff were paying travel expenses for both Democrats and Republicans.

And Schieffer couldn't find time to discuss Ms. Hypocrisy '05, Nancy Pelosi, who is now utterly silent about said travel issues. "She demanded an investigation into [Majority Leader] Tom DeLay, but hasn't said a word about these Democrats who have done the same thing," said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

Maybe someday Schieffer can ask his staff to look into all Congressional travel expenses, so the public could determine just how frequently these jaunts are practiced. But that would require exposing Democrats, and not just Republicans, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

Until then, CBS has all the relevance of Leonard Nimoy at the Grammys.
 

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