They Get Letters

To Romenesko:

From JOHN ROYAL: I find the hand wringing over the Dan Rather-George W. Bush interesting. I recall that sometime in the mid-90s, at the heart of Whitewater, that "Nightline" ran a story, with commentary by Jeff Greenfield, that used video of Hillary Clinton supposedly admitting to something that she'd been saying she hadn't done. Of course, it wasn't until much later that it was learned that ABC had doctored the video and that Ms. Clinton was actually saying something quite different.

So, I wonder. I notice that Ted Koppel and Jeff Greenfield still have jobs, but was anybody from ABC dismissed over that matter? And if not, then why should Rather or Mapes or anybody at CBS be out of work for what appears to be an honest mistake and not a deliberate act like ABC's video editing?

He's sure the truth will come out
9/22/2004 2:04:29 PM

From TOM NAWROCKI: Last night on "Hardball," Chris Matthews said, "You believe particularly that the role of the former lieutenant governor, Ben Barnes, who says now that he helped put together that sweet billet for the president back in the Guard back all those years ago, having said the opposite before." This is of course, untrue, since Barnes testified in 1999 that he had indeed pulled strings for Bush to get him into the Guard. Barnes didn't say "the opposite" before; he said the same things he subsequently told Dan Rather.

But I am not worried that the truth will come out in this case. I'm sure by the end of the day, there will be calls for Matthews to resign, stories about depression overtaking MSNBC's news operations, and Howard Kurtz wondering why "Hardball" is taking so long to correct such an obvious error.