All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

"To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful."

That was CBS great Edward R. Murrow speaking about his philosophy of journalism. But the famous quote also encapsulates the philosophy of the National Transportation Safety Board, according to its new chairman, Deborah Hersman.

In a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Hersman, a five-year veteran of the NTSB, offered some keen insights into how the Board deals with the media and how the media covers the plane crashes and other major transportation accidents that her agency is charged with investigating.

"We release factual information without analysis or interpretation," Hersman said simply. And she is right. As those of us in the media who regularly cover the transportation beat well know, it is exceedingly rare that an NTSB official will pass on information that later turns out to be untrue.

They may frustratingly demure when pressed to speculate on the possible cause of a plane crash in the early hours of an investigation, but they do not pass on bad information.

As for those who do not regularly cover the beat, the chairman offered some thoughts about them -- or at least some of them: "Occasionally we encounter reporters at the accident scene who don't routinely cover transportation issues and have the -- how shall I say it -- don't have a full grasp of the subject matter." One such reporter, Hersman said, once asked an NTSB official, "Who makes 747s besides Boeing?" Another asked, "Who was steering the train?"

Hersman also bemoaned the "competitive fervor" which she said has led to an "If it scares, it airs" media mentality, citing the September 11th fiasco involving a Coast Guard drill on the Potomac which CNN mistakenly reported as an armed encounter with a suspicious vessel.

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Lou Dobbs, who recently resigned from hosting a nightly show on CNN, said in his first interview since his resignation that he is "going to remain in the public arena."

Dobbs was asked by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly if he is considering a Senate run in New Jersey.

"A lot of things are on my mind, I'm not going to be coy about this," Dobbs said, though he neglected to answer the question directly. He went on to say he is "thinking about a lot of opportunities."

O'Reilly then asked Dobbs if President Obama is "the devil." (Yes, you read that right.)

"He's not the devil, but he is certainly a man who is right now not making it easy to understand why he's making the public policy choices that he is," said Dobbs, who left CNN to "carry the banner of advocacy journalism" in a more appropriate venue, in the words of network president Jonathan Klein.

Dobbs went on to question "what is taking so long to come to a decision on Afghanistan," as well as "why it is so necessary to turn over a sixth of the economy to the United States government."

Dobbs agreed with O'Reilly's suggestion that the president is "mismanaging" the country.

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A White House official says China has assured the U.S. there will be no media censorship of President Barack Obama's remarks during a three-day visit that will take him to Shanghai and Beijing.

The official told CBS News the administration secured a Chinese government promise to carry the President's remarks "as spoken." The official also said the White House would be ready to "make it a big story" if China blocks out any of the President's words.

Government censors removed references to communism and dissent from the official Chinese language translation of President Obama's January inaugural speech. The main Chinese television network also wiped out certain passages from the inaugural speech.

John Delury, Associate Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, says Chinese people are very aware of government efforts to control information flow.

"There's a cat and mouse game that goes on, but the reality on the ground in China is there is pretty good access to most of the information," Delury said. "China is a pretty wired place, especially the cities and the younger generation."

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Reuters, Fox Business Network, CNBC and other media outlets were tricked Monday into falsely reporting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the business lobbying group, had shifted its position and was now supporting the climate change legislation being debated in Congress.

An activist group known as the Yes Men – which recently put out a fake version of the New York Post proclaiming "WE'RE SCREWED" – sent a fake press release, complete with Chamber of Commerce logo, to reporters this morning. The release was quickly picked up by the Reuters wire service, which released a story proclaiming that the Chamber had dropped its opposition to the legislation and was calling for the inclusion of a carbon tax within it.

The story, which you can see here, included a quote from someone identified as a spokesman for the Chamber, Hingo Sembra. Someone calling himself Sembra held a press conference at the National Press Club today to trumpet the ostensible shift in policy. The event included "fake handouts on chamber letterhead, at least a couple of fake reporters, and a podium adorned with the chamber logo," the Washington Post reports. Several reporters -- as well as, presumably, the National Press club -- were reportedly unaware that the event was a hoax.

The press conference began normally but dissolved into a surreal scene when a legitimate Chamber official burst into the event, having heard about it from a reporter, and exclaimed that "Sembra" was a phony. The activist holding the press conference then called the Chamber official, Eric Wohlschlegel, a fake and demanded his business card.

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In an interview with Time Magazine released today, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn offered a blunt assessment of Fox News: "It's opinion journalism masquerading as news," she said. "They are boosting their audience. But that doesn't mean we are going to sit back."

As CNN notes, the White House has long had an adversarial relationship with the conservative news channel. President Obama pointedly left the network off the list when he made the rounds at the networks in September to push his health care plan, and it slammed Fox News in a blog post last Wednesday, complaining of a continued "disregard for the facts."

It may not be all acrimony, however: Politico reported on Tuesday that White House senior adviser David Axelrod met with Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes in September. The "cordial" conversation reportedly revolved around Fox News's coverage and the relationship between the network and the White House.

Fox News host Glenn Beck has called Mr. Obama a "racist", and commentators on the cable network have regularly attacked the president.

Syndicated columnist Helen Thomas today told White House press secretary Robert Gibbs at his daily press briefing that she keeps asking about the public health care option because she wants his "conscience to bother" him.

Thomas pressed Gibbs on whether the White House was actively supporting the creation of a public, or government-run, plan in negotiations over health care legislation. The public option is supported by liberal Democrats in Congress but opposed by Republicans and some moderate Democrats.

President Obama has said he supports the public option but signaled that he would sign a bill that does not include it.

"Has the president given up on the public option?" Thomas asked, prompting Gibbs to suggest she asks the question every day.

"I ask it day after day because it has great meaning in this country, and you never answer it," Thomas said.

"I apparently don't answer it to your satisfaction," Gibbs said with a smile, prompting Thomas to say, "that's right."

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CNN has responded to critics of its decision this morning to report that the Coast Guard had fired 10 rounds at a suspicious boat in the Potomac River.

It later became clear that CNN had based the report on a radio transmission of a training exercise, and that no shots had ever been fired.

CNN said in its statement that staffers had been monitoring law enforcement activity when it heard a Coast Guard transmission that a boat had breached a security zone on the Potomac, near the Pentagon.

The network said the staffers contacted a Coast Guard spokeswoman, who "said she was unaware of any activity taking place on the Potomac River."

"After hearing a further radio transmission about 10 rounds being expended, and after reviewing video of rapid movement by Coast Guard vessels as the President's motorcade crossed the Memorial Bridge, CNN reported the story," the network said. "Simultaneously, during a second phone call, the Coast Guard spokeswoman informed us that its National Command Center and other command posts knew nothing about any activity in the area."

CNN went on to say that not reporting the story would have been "irresponsible."

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President Obama offered some critical words for present-day journalism at a memorial for legendary CBS Newsman Walter Cronkite Wednesday, contrasting Cronkite's personal values and dedication to getting the story right with a what he cast as a cheapened public debate.

The "standard of honesty and integrity and responsibility" that Cronkite maintained, the president said, is "a little bit harder to find today."

"We know that this is a difficult time for journalism," said Mr. Obama. "Even as appetites for news and information grow, newsrooms are closing. Despite the big stories of our era, serious journalists find themselves all too often without a beat. Just as the news cycle has shrunk, so has the bottom line."

Complete coverage of Walter Cronkite from CBSNews.com

"And too often, we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained, rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed," he continued. "'What happened today?' is replaced with 'Who won today?' The public debate cheapens. The public trust falters. We fail to understand our world or one another as well as we should –- and that has real consequences in our own lives and in the life of our nation. We seem stuck with a choice between what cuts to our bottom line and what harms us as a society. Which price is higher to pay? Which cost is harder to bear?"

The president went on to quote Cronkite's comment that "this democracy cannot function without a reasonably well-informed electorate." Mr. Obama said America's future depends on the "honest, objective, meticulous reporting" that "is so vital to our democracy and our society."

"Walter was no naive idealist," the president said. "He understood the challenges and the pressures and the temptations facing journalism in this new era. He believed that a media company has an obligation to pursue a profit, but also an obligation to invest a good chunk of that profit back into news and public affairs. He was excited about all the stories that a high-tech world of journalism would be able to tell, and all the newly-emerging means with which to tell it."

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President Obama faces a daunting week as he aims to sell his health-care plan with an address Wednesday to a joint session of Congress, but the spotlight right now is focused on his problems rather than his policy with the conservative media leading the charge.

From town-hall protests and Tea Party marches across the U.S. (culminating this week in Washington), to the resignation of controversial 'green jobs czar' Van Jones, right-wing personalities like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Matt Drudge are spearheading an assault against the administration and there's been little done to counter them.

Watch Monday's "Unplugged" above as Bob Orr breaks down the administration's quagmire with Politico's Andy Barr and media strategist Nick Ragone. "Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes .

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The future of Sarah Palin has been heavily mulled over by many. The former Republican vice presidential candidate has yet to announce any plans for jumping back into national politics. She has a book deal, though she has not spoken very much about it. Unlike someone like Mike Huckabee, who could be a 2012 rival if she decides to run for president, she has yet to become a regular on cable television. And in fact, she gave up her bully pulpit as governor as Alaska.

In spite of all this, the charismatic Palin has stayed in the spotlight.

Over the past week, Palin has caused a firestorm of debate by ratcheting up the rhetoric criticizing certain health care reform proposals, accusing President Obama of planning to establish "death panels." Her description of the reform proposal has been widely debunked, yet the term has caught on with both liberals interested in debunking the claim as well as conservatives trying to perpetuate it.

Without a seat on the cable news circuit, without a political office to leverage and without any kind of formal structure through which to promote her ideas, there was one simple place through which Palin could spread her ideas: Facebook. The former governor has enthusiastically embraced Twitter, and this week she wrote multiple Facebook messages blasting the president's health care reform plans.

"The president is busy assuring us that we can keep our private insurance plans, but common sense (and basic economics) tells us otherwise," she wrote in a note on Friday. "The public option in the Democratic health care plan will crowd out private insurers, and that’s what it’s intended to do."

While Palin has aggressively jumped into the most controversial and pressing political issue of the moment, her Facebook postings do not necessarily mean she has any particular plans for herself, warns Fred Malek, a prominent political player who served on John McCain's presidential campaign team and knows Palin well.

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