ABC's memo problem
The Washington Times - Editiorials Op-Ed
Three weeks before the election, ABC News Political Director
Mark Halperin apparently doesn't think the campaign season is going too
well. He thinks ABC News must help the electorate by sorting out the
relevant facts from the spin; holding the liars accountable; and openly
campaign for the election of John Kerry — stuff like that. Mr. Halperin
issued these instructions to ABC News employees last week in a memo,
which was subsequently leaked to Internet news-guru Matt Drudge just
before Friday night's second presidential debate. ABC News' Charles
Gibson, coincidentally, moderated the debate.
The memo states in glaring, if improper,
language just why the campaign isn't going as swimmingly for Mr. Kerry
as Mr. Halperin would like: "[T]he current Bush attacks on Kerry
involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes
beyond what Kerry has done." Ergo, writes Mr. Halperin, ABC News has "a
responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest,
but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides
'equally' accountable when the facts don't warrant that ... It's up to
Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news
organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what
the candidates are saying to serve the public interest [sic]. Now is
the time for all of us to step up and do that right" (quotes in
original).
The obvious point of course is that Mr.
Halperin's memo adds further proof — this time, neatly typed out in
black and white — to the growing mound of evidence that the mainstream
media leans liberal. A Pew Research Center and Project on Excellence in
Journalism released a report over the summer that found 34 percent of
national journalists identified themselves as liberal, while just seven
percent said they were conservative. An August New York Times article
conducted an "unscientific" survey that found that by a 12 to one
margin, Washington journalists favor Mr. Kerry in the upcoming
election. But entrenched liberalism isn't really the problem here;
shameless arrogance is.
The Pew survey contrasted its findings
with the breakdown of the American public, 20 percent of which
identifies itself as liberal, 33 percent as conservative. No wonder Mr.
Halperin thinks ABC News, with all its "skill and strength," should
"help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying": The poor dolts
are too conservative for their own good. In the wake of the Dan Rather
uproar, one would think that executives like Mr. Halperin would be a
bit more guarded in revealing their bias, especially three weeks before
the election and right before his own Mr. Gibson was about to host a
presidential debate. But when someone like Mr. Halperin doesn't think
he has a bias, it's particularly difficult to guard against it.
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