Mindful of its own past failing (i.e., Janet Cooke) The Washington Post editorializes today about the “poor judgement” at CBS. Not surprising that the cable talk shows are having a field day with it, with both ABC and NBC apparently enjoying every minute of it.
But then The Post editorial concludes with “[m]eanwhile, we continue to entertain the notion that there are subjects more important in this presidential campaign than even Swift boats or the Alabama National Guard.”
Then exactly why has The Post given Howard Kurtz acres of newsprint over the past week? He can’t seem to get enough of the story. Kurtz, whose columns are now sometimes slugged by The Post as “Politics” and whose ties to the Republican party through his wife give at least the appearance of a conflict of interest, seems to fuel the fire by his apparent bias. In his online chat Monday, he was asked about the Bush campaign ties to the Swift Boat Veteran. He replies, “Sure the Swifties drew funding from Republicans and Bush supporters, but that doesn’t mean the Bush campaign can be held responsible for the attack, any more than Kerry can be held responsible for some of the harsher MoveOn ads.”
Such a comment suggests that MoveOn ads were in the same league as the Swifties. But that is so far from the truth that it again begs the question of whether Kurtz can ever be trusted to be fair. Just which ad does he think was so personal an attack that was has been so thoroughly discredited as the Swifties ad? You can see all the MoveOn ads here. Kurtz then goes on to say
Clinton’s active avoidance of the draft was a legitimate political issue, as is Cheney’s (though he got pretty standard college and parental deferments). In the case of Bush, despite the fact that he obviously had some help getting into the Guard and benefited from being a congressman’s son, he did serve and flew airplanes, which is not like pushing paper.
This apparent judgement that there should be no questions about Bush’s lack of Vietnam service and that Cheney’s deferrals were standard procedure and therefore beyond reproach reveal a clear bias, in my view.
But now that Kurtz has attacked CBS and impugned its integrity for more than a week now, I guess I should move on to “subjects more important.” Perhaps like The Post’s hypocrisy.