By Bob Parks ——Bio and Archives--August 18, 2008
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August 17, 2008 Mr. Steve Capus President, NBC News 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112 Steve: We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.Okay, I'm sure this "extremely disappointed" stuff is purely for public consumption, because the level of objectivity with almost all the news outlets has been so bad, that this was expected. It was only a question of when. Stand by for NBC's defense that they are shocked anyone would dare question their objectivity as one of the standard-bearers of journalistic integrity and objectivity. Pardon me while I take a bathroom break…
Nowhere was this more evident than with NBC chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell's comments on "Meet the Press" this morning. In analyzing last night's presidential forum at Saddleback Church, Mitchell expressed the Obama campaign spin that John McCain could only have done so well last night because he "may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama." Here are Andrea Mitchell's comments in full: Mitchell: "The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/17/08)In the journalism school I went to, I would have been instructed to only make such a public charge IF and only IF, I could back that up with facts. Without seeing John McCain holding and listening through a DIxie cup on the side of the cone's wall, there's nothing concrete to base her assertion.
Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night's forum at Saddleback Church. Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood in any way, Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of "Meet the Press" viewers with no indication that 1.) There's not one shred of evidence that it's true; 2.) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren's idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, "I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea;" 3.) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot. Indeed, instead of taking a critical journalistic approach to this spin, Andrea Mitchell did what has become a pattern for her of simply repeating Obama campaign talking points.The Obama campaign is also pretty quick when it comes to pulling the whine trigger.
This is irresponsible journalism and sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle. Instead of examining the Obama campaign's spin for truth before reporting it to more than 3 million NBC News viewers, Andrea Mitchell simply passed along Obama campaign conspiracy theories. The fact is that during Senator Obama's segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed. In the forum, John McCain clearly demonstrated to the American people that he is prepared to be our next President…..Was Andrea Mitchell aware of this, or was she talking out her #? That was a rhetorical.
We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC's lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC. Sincerely, Rick Davis Campaign Manager John McCain 2008Davis' last paragraph was a nice way of closing, but none of us are dumb here. Barack Obama is the news media's flavor of the year and as liberals, feel the American people are below them, so such blatant slants of news coverage will continue until they are caught so red-handed, they can't spin their way out of it. The problem is how low the bar has been set. One would think after the Dan Rather forged-but-accurate report, as well as the weekend before the election George W. Bush DUI story, that the media's credibility would be a tad below that of Tonya Harding. But the short attention span of the American people is something the media must count on for their survival. And that's why people like myself are here: to assure that their survival is earned.
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Bob Parks is a is a member/writer of the National Advisory Council of Project 21. Bob’s websites are Black & Right and youtube.com/BlackAndRight