Underwear Knotting 101
This is absolutely hysterical. The left is positively foaming at the mouth, screeching their heads off and busily knotting their collective shorts over CBS News decision to fire General John Batiste. The network fired him after he made a fundraising, anti-war video ad slamming the president. Which is a violation of a basic rule of journalism. You cannot simultaneously present yourself as a neutral journalist while being a public and vocal political activist. In this case, in particular, the worry is that the general's opinions could be colored by his political activities, calling the network's coverage into question.
CBS News Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason confirmed to me that Batiste was asked to vacate his position.
“When we hire someone as a consultant, we want them to share their expertise with our viewers,” she said. “By putting himself front and center in an anti-Bush ad, the viewer might have the feeling everything he says is anti-Bush. And that doesn’t seem like an analytical approach to the issues we want to discuss.”
She said that Batiste's appearance in the ad marked a violation of CBS News standards, in which “we ask that people not be involved in advocacy.”
Added Mason: “We might still go to the general to ask about things, but not as a consultant to CBS News.”
UPDATE: Mason contacted me this afternoon to expand on her comments.
“General Batiste took part in a commercial that’s being shown on television to raise money for veterans against the war,” she said. “It isn’t just that he took an advocacy position.” She also said that the decision would have been the same had Batiste appeared in a similar ad in support of the president.
I will personally bet a large sum of cash that if the general had filmed a pro-Bush ad, the left would have been in an even bigger frenzy than they are right now. Only they'd be demanding the general's head on a plate. You can go find the frothing over at Memeorandum.
UPDATE: A bit more from the Rochester, New York Democrat and Chronicle newspaper:
(May 11, 2007) — CBS News has cut ties with retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste of Brighton as an on-air military consultant after he appeared this week in television ads critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
Batiste and CBS said the decision was amicable.
“Gen. Batiste inadvertently violated our standards by appearing in the advertisement,” said CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius. “Therefore, we and the general mutually agreed to end his consultants’ arrangement with CBS News.”
Batiste said he understood the station’s decision, but feels it’s important to continue to speak out against the war. Batiste, who led the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq for 2½ years before retiring in 2005, was featured in a national television ad this week sponsored by the group VoteVets.org.
By tbogg, Friday, 11 May , 2007 @ 4:59 pm
A. He is not a journalist and is never presented as one.
B. It is not a fundraising video.
…but don’t let that get in your way of whatever it is you think you’re doing.
By syn, Friday, 11 May , 2007 @ 8:05 pm
If he is not a journalist why work for CBS News?
Of course 529s are oblivious to fundraising, that would be downright against McCain/Feingold.
Whatever you think it Gaius is doing rest assure it’s not what you think.
By Gaius, Friday, 11 May , 2007 @ 8:22 pm
At the moment, it’s a tango. But I’ll probably switch to a waltz soon. It’s late.