Another Black Eye for CBS

When will CBS learn that their job is to report the news, not create or distort it to promote their left-wing agenda?

I’m beginning to wonder if its staff suffers from some sort of condition that prevents them from comprehending reality.

Are they victims of an illness? Or are they conniving partisan hacks, conscious of their misrepresentations (lies)?

Whatever the problem is, they are responsible for the content of their broadcasts. All too often, those broadcasts are utterly unreliable.

Once again, CBS falsified information on their Monday evening news broadcast.

From Media Research Center, full transcript of the CBS story:

Bob Schieffer: "In Washington, an epic battle that has been threatened for months now may be coming to a head: The Republican threat to try to change Senate rules and do away with filibusters to make it easier to confirm some of the President's judicial appointments. It sounds like inside baseball, but it could have a dramatic impact on everything from abortion and same-sex marriage to the death penalty. Here's Gloria Borger with our report."

Audio of Chuck Schumer over video of Capitol dome: "It's an arrogance, an abuse of power."

Borger: "As far as political fights go, this could be one for the history books."

Audio of Bill Frist: "They should get an up-or-down vote."

Borger: "The Senate showdown is over judges. Republicans, who want to get the President's nominees confirmed, are threatening to end the age-old filibuster, where any Senator can threaten to stop any vote just by continuously talking. Right now it takes 60 votes to cut him off. The Democrats call that unconstitutional, an assault on the system of checks and balances."

Borger, standing in front of Supreme Court: "But this fight goes way beyond Senate rules. This is a monumental battle about the future of the courts. Just who gets to sit on the Supreme Court? And should we appoint justices who want to rule on everything from abortion to gay marriage to civil rights? [Borger off camera again] That's why many conservatives consider the fight over judges their political Armageddon. But conservative icon and former federal Judge Ken Starr says it's gotten out of control."

Ken Starr, identified on-screen as "Dean, Pepperdine University School of Law," sitting opposite Borger in an office setting: "This is a radical, radical departure from our history and from our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government."

Borger: "Starr, who investigated the Monica Lewinsky case against President Clinton, tells CBS News that the Republican plan to end the filibuster may be unwise."

Starr: "It may prove to have the kind of long-term boomerang effect, damage on the institution of the Senate that thoughtful Senators may come to regret."

Borger: "Still, Starr thinks all judges should be allowed a vote, even if they're Democrats."

Borger to Starr: "During the Clinton years-"

Starr: "Exactly."

Borger: "-lots of those nominees were blocked by Republicans in committee, you'll recall."

Starr: "Exactly."

Borger: "Right."

Starr: "And I don't think that's particularly admirable either."

Borger, with Capitol backdrop: "Now both sides realize they have a lot at stake here, so watch for talk of a possible compromise. They know that the polls show that partisan wrangling is not what the voters want, Bob."

Schieffer then asked her: "Well, seeing Ken Starr, of all people, coming out on what looks like the opposite side of many on the conservative, in the conservative wing of the Republican Party, tells me that both sides here may be looking for some way out of this showdown that's coming. Do you get that sense, Gloria?"

Borger: "I do get that sense. The polls are showing that the voters really want this wrangling to stop. I think Ken Starr is saying that those on the far right and those on the far left have both gone overboard; that a President ought to get the right to pick his judges, and we ought to move beyond where we were when we had the Justice Bork fight in the '80s, Bob."

CBS, as well as other outlets, went into full drool mode over conservative icon Ken Starr’s comments. They need to wipe the slobber off themselves. Starr’s remarks were edited to do maximum damage to Republicans.

Although it’s true that Starr opposes ending the filibuster for judicial nominees, he clarified his position in an e-mail that appeared on National Review Online’s “The Corner.”

"In the piece that I have now seen, and which I gather is being lavishly quoted, CBS employed two snippets. The 'radical departure' snippet was specifically addressed -- although this is not evidenced whatever from the clip -- to the practice of invoking judicial philosophy as a grounds for voting against a qualified nominee of integrity and experience. I said in sharp language that that practice was wrong. I contrasted the current practice...with what occurred during Ruth Ginsburg's nomination process, as numerous Republicans voted (rightly) to confirm a former ACLU staff lawyer. They disagreed with her positions as a lawyer, but they voted (again, rightly) to confirm her. Why? Because elections, like ideas, have consequences....In the interview, I did indeed suggest, and have suggested elsewhere, that caution and prudence be exercised (Burkean that I am) in shifting/modifying rules (that's the second snippet), but I likewise made clear that the 'filibuster' represents an entirely new use (and misuse) of a venerable tradition....

"[O]ur friends are way off base in assuming that the CBS snippets, as used, represent (a) my views, or (b) what I in fact said."

Pravda would be proud.

The least CBS could do is apologize to Ken Starr for distorting his words. Also, it would be very appropriate for CBS to apologize to its viewers for its inexcusably shoddy, deceptive reporting.

That's not going to happen.