Across The Media Universe: A Pox On All Their Houses Edition

(CBS)

Fox News Flub: When Fox News Channel covered Monday's indictment of Representative William "Cold Cash" Jefferson, they ran videotape of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers alongside the story. Oops! Aside from party affiliation, what else do the congressmen have in common? You guessed it: They're both African-American. For its part, Fox chalked it up to a harried 22-year old production assistant and aired a brief apology. "We mistakenly ran the wrong videotape accompanying that story and we apologize for that error." (That was it.) Conyers' response?

Fox News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair, nor balanced. This type of disrespect for people of color should no longer be tolerated. I am personally offended by the network's complete disregard for accuracy in reporting and lackluster on-air apology.

Readers may remember that the Fox News Channel's Democratic debate this fall is being boycotted by most of the contenders due to what they see as the channel's lack of fairness.

Pole Positioning: We've had "Senior Moments." We've had "Tagamet Moments." Now, in 2007, we've got people having "Imus Moments." Night-time talker slash morning-show gabber Joe Scarborough is in hot water for the following exchange with Craig Crawford on his "Morning Joe" telecast last week:

SCARBOROUGH: Have you seen Fred Thompson's wife?
CRAWFORD: Oh, yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: You think she thinks she works the pole?

MSNBC is standing by their host, saying that the conversation was a continuation of an earlier theme about how women are beginning to use stripper's poles in aerobic workouts. But his banter with Crawford is still being characterized by some as "lecherous." Which is it? Who knows: Maybe there's a 22-year old that can be blamed for this, too.

CNN Anchor of Yesterday Laments CNN of Today: Former CNN-er Bernard Shaw (He was in Iraq back in the day!) is no fan of the current state of the network. In a conversation with the Chicago Sun-Times, Shaw observed:

I'm very, very disappointed with the way the news management at my favorite network has gone. CNN has fine women and men working there… But CNN continues to ape many of the on-air mannerisms of the Fox News Network, and I don't like that.

He singled out Lou Dobbs as one of the "fine men" of the network. (So he likes Dobbs, but not opinionated anchors? That's...confusing.) Anyway, when handing out accolades, how could Shaw have neglected to mention CNN American Morning co-host Kiran Chetry's deft handling of the Spelling Bee winner on Friday?

[ronmwanga]

I totally agree with Bernie Shaw, who I miss deeply on the present incarnation of CNN, back in the day when Kalb co-histed with Howie Kurtz on Reliable Sources. Aside from being the first African-American anchor, Shaw brought a sense of gravitas to the whole channel -- his Nixon interviews, in particular (And Nixon almost NEVER did teevee -- back in the days when every world leader worth his salt used to watch the channel religiously. No longer. I can only hope he was never subjected to "Paula Zahn Now". And, of course, the whole Jeff Koinange Mess, which still has me reeling as he was -- even with the allegations of staged interviews -- the most visible investigative reporter on the continent.

Ron Mwangaguhunga

[Rephoel]

Who cares?
Most of the time most of you news media don't report the truth,just poke fun st the ones who deserve respect and respect the fools who don't deserve it.

[jjnels]

Reminds me of when CBS recently fired a young low-level person after blaming them for the plagerism in one of Katie's notebook features...

[mattcat25]

Looking at the conduct of William Jefferson it would seem that one could easily mistake him for a Republican instead of just another Black Congressmen.