About Those "Evening News" Report Reports…
The line that seems to have gotten people's attention is the one in which I said that it was nice to see anchor Katie Couric interviewing fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias instead of someone like Mt. Hood widow Karen James, who she talked to in December. But it's pretty irresponsible to point to that line without noting this one: "Kaplan began to really get involved with the show on Tuesday, and it's way, way too early to judge the results." As I noted repeatedly in the piece, the Iglesias interview was just one small thing I noticed and thought worth mentioning.
Brian Stelter over at TVNewser, to his credit, put my line about how it was too early to judge the broadcast into his post. The New York Post did not. And they got my job title wrong to boot.
But at least they have the New York Daily News beat. On Monday, gossip columnists Rush & Molloy wrote an item about CBS News that achieved an impressive level of factual inaccuracy. Stelter laid it all out:
NY Daily News: "Hartman's No. 2, Paul Friedman, is vulnerable, sources say."Wrote Stelter in a follow-up post headlined "Waiting For A NY Daily News Correction...": "Yesterday, I said the paper should hire a fact-checkers. But maybe they need more than that -- how about a crash course in journalism 101?"Fact: Paul Friedman isn't Hartman's #2 -- he's the second-in-command of the entire news division. His bio could have you told you that.
NY Daily News: "Kaplan may cut Steve Friedman."
Fact: Kaplan, an EP, doesn't have the ability to cut VP Steve Friedman. Their bios could have told you that.
NY Daily News: Steve Friedman is "the executive producer of CBS This Morning."
Fact: CBS renamed This Morning SEVEN YEARS AGO. It's been called The Early Show since 1999. Wikipedia could have told you that.