Fair is Fair
Sunday Morning Talk touts the 'news' that Bush is "Running for Cover" because of sliding poll numbers and that any backing off Bush is purportedly doing is likely the Rove spin machine doing damage control. The basis for this is a George Stephanopoulos comment that he has seen some reports.
Heady stuff and from "one of the best roundtables on Sunday Morning." Out of what five that SMT covers? Okay!
SMT then tries to tie it in with the "good, solid reporting"' done by Linda Douglas of ABC in breaking
the GOP Talking Points Memo on 21 March. Not really. I'll grant it is as close to "reporting" as has been done in years, but it is still not reporting and certainly not good or solid. First the details. Reporting would include a phrase to the effect, "memo received by ABC from X" and maybe a date. It ought to either be "alleged" that it was circulated among Republican senators or name those who saw it being passed out. The memo doesn't follow, but a transcribing of the contents of the memo does. It may be an exact transcription but it is not a copy, at least as far as the word "copy" is commonly used today.
But the most obvious part of the story nixing this as "good solid reporting", is that both the headline and the body of the story states the typed information on an otherwise blank sheet of white paper, is a talking points memo. Seriously, even the stark raving fringe of both the left and right, inside and outside the halls of Congress, wouldn't put the third and fourth bullets in a "talking points memo".
Can we ratchet up the honesty, please? After all, "fair is fair." (via The Moderate Voice)
More: While I am not in agreement with any of the tone of TMV's post I linked to above, one that focuses mostly on Jeff Jarvis's comments, I do have to credit Mr. Gandelman for posting what I would consider a counter argument to it below. The post, a perspective by William Stothers which advocates, in spirit if not in law (if I read it right), the approach Republicans and Bush took in the end. So in the interest of fairness, kudos to Mr. Gandelman for providing some balance on TMV.
Heady stuff and from "one of the best roundtables on Sunday Morning." Out of what five that SMT covers? Okay!
SMT then tries to tie it in with the "good, solid reporting"' done by Linda Douglas of ABC in breaking
the GOP Talking Points Memo on 21 March. Not really. I'll grant it is as close to "reporting" as has been done in years, but it is still not reporting and certainly not good or solid. First the details. Reporting would include a phrase to the effect, "memo received by ABC from X" and maybe a date. It ought to either be "alleged" that it was circulated among Republican senators or name those who saw it being passed out. The memo doesn't follow, but a transcribing of the contents of the memo does. It may be an exact transcription but it is not a copy, at least as far as the word "copy" is commonly used today.
But the most obvious part of the story nixing this as "good solid reporting", is that both the headline and the body of the story states the typed information on an otherwise blank sheet of white paper, is a talking points memo. Seriously, even the stark raving fringe of both the left and right, inside and outside the halls of Congress, wouldn't put the third and fourth bullets in a "talking points memo".
Can we ratchet up the honesty, please? After all, "fair is fair." (via The Moderate Voice)
More: While I am not in agreement with any of the tone of TMV's post I linked to above, one that focuses mostly on Jeff Jarvis's comments, I do have to credit Mr. Gandelman for posting what I would consider a counter argument to it below. The post, a perspective by William Stothers which advocates, in spirit if not in law (if I read it right), the approach Republicans and Bush took in the end. So in the interest of fairness, kudos to Mr. Gandelman for providing some balance on TMV.
Posted by Dusty at 12:09 PM
1 Creaks:
"Seriously, even the stark raving fringe of both the left and right, inside and outside the halls of Congress, wouldn't put the third and fourth bullets in a "talking points memo"."
Hmm, what say you now, oh wise one. Martinez was handing out the memo himself!!! And his legal counsel wrote it!
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