Many fair-minded Americans were shocked and disgusted today when our colleagues over at MSNBC - during their coverage announcing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's nomination for Vice President on the Republican ticket - placed a "Breaking News" banner under the visuals asking sarcastically:
How Many Houses Does Palin Bring to the Republican Ticket?
This unbelievably unprofessional and disgracefully partisan smear comes on the heels of repeated incidents on MSNBC that have led many to conclude that the network is merely the media arm of the Obama Campaign, or that it takes its cues from regular communiques from the moonbats at DailyKos and MoveOn. This crisis in credibility is somewhat disguised by healthy ratings this week from covering the Democratic National Convention - ratings that will decline precipitously when MSNBC's primary audience loses interest in coverage of the Republican National Convention.
I call on the leadership at the highest levels of MSNBC to immediately investigate how such an egregiously partisan and snarky editorial comment could be broadcast as "hard news" by a supposedly reputable network on such an historic occasion. I call on the leadership at the highest levels of MSNBC to track down the individuals responsible and fire them publicly, and repudiate this tactic, and give assurances that this will never happen again.
The NBC brand has a long and proud history in journalism; recently, the NBC family and America lost one of the best men ever in broadcast journalism when Tim Russert passed away. It is impossible to imagine that this disgraceful episode would have or could have occurred if Russert was still alive. It is difficult to understand how it could happen while Tom Brokaw or Brian Williams are associated with the network.
It's a low moment for MSNBC and for those of us who watch it. We can be assured that if something comparable had occurred on Fox or CNN, that Keith Olbermann and his comrades would be screaming loud and long about it - as well they should be. Of course, all of those on the Left who champion the mis-named "Fairness Doctrine" have been conspicuously silent about this incident so far.
Who will speak up about this issue, and who will do something about it? Or, is journalism in America well and truly dead?
