Sloppy Journalism

[Dr. Shane]

CNN’s Griffin Acknowledges ‘Botched’ National Review Quotation

WOLF BLITZER: Some controversy over an interview that the Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave. She gave it to our Drew Griffin -- he interviewed the governor this week. You saw it here in The Situation Room. Drew, you -- as you know, you’re being criticized for one question that you asked Governor Palin. Tell our viewers what the issue is.

DREW GRIFFIN: Wolf, the issue is really the setup to a question in that 25-minute interview. First, I want you to hear what this is all about. Here's the question.

GRIFFIN (from taped interview with Sarah Palin): Governor, you’ve been mocked in the press. The press has been pretty hard on you. The Democrats have been pretty hard on you. But also, some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, or all of the above.

GRIFFIN: (on-camera): It’s a conservative magazine and the author, Byron York -- here is what York wrote: ‘Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it's sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, backward or -- or well, all of the above.’ Unfortunately, my question -- I botched it. I misquoted York by using the word ‘I’ instead of reading his direct quote, which I had in front of me, which attributes the statement to the media. I thought it was a very good article, Wolf. I was going to get it -- use it to get the governor to answer the question why her, you know, successful governing record in Alaska wasn't getting out. She had no trouble answering that question, and in no way did I intend to misquote the National Review. The exchange aired just once in your show, Wolf, and as soon as the National Review brought it to our attention at 7:05, we immediately realized the context could be misconstrued, and we cut that portion of the interview. It never aired again. We also sent a statement directly to the National Review explaining what happened, and that we do not plan to run it again. And I since called Byron York and his editor Rich Lowry, explained what happened, and told them both that I regret any harm this may have brought. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much. Drew Griffin reporting for us.

[text taken from link]

[fccool]

What we have on the news today is not journalism. True journalism unfortunately went underground for the most part. We are left with partisan hackery, and "expert opinions". It takes hard work to dig for facts, and to show both sides of the story.

I was watching CBS nightline tonight, and the story on Palin was obviously not for the viewers to make informative decision about her character. They said nothing about her policies, and only mentioned scandals. That's not journalism. That's Jerry Springerism... i.e. guess what we have behind that door - your deepest and dirtiest secret. Or the two talk hosts cream their brains out on who is good and who is not. That's not journalism. Journalism lays out facts, and lets people decide.

Jon Stewart pointed out very well in this clip, and I agree: