A few days ago, I posted a video that MoveOn produced on Katie Couric's stenography and encouraged C&Lers to write into CBS and express their disappointment at the lack of journalistic standards in Couric's reports.
Several of you have and both C&L and MoveOn have received feedback that is...oh, let's just say a little prickly:
From our comments:
Here is the response they sent me:
"Sorry you didn't get a chance to see much of the reporting from Iraq....if you had, you wouldn't have written such a note...imagine all your info came from a blog...too bad."
And to a MoveOn member (from a very polite letter):
"Actually most intelligent people were very impressed by the quality of our reports from Iraq and Syria ...Apparently you missed most of the interviews that were done over there...imagine you got your information from a blog somewhere..."
Hmmm....defensive much, Katie? Christy at Firedoglake:
Oh, I get it. Legitimate criticism from viewers can simply be ignored if you dismiss it as coming from a blog. But not asking the critical questions, repeating talking points wholesale, failing to follow-up when you are being snowed and charmed, and buying military spin outright while feeding it by the spoonful to your adoring public is just peachy? So much for the whole "journalistic integrity" canard. And the tanking ratings.
The two senior producers at CBS Evening News are Jim McGlinchy (jmp@cbsnews.com) and Betty Chin ( bc2@cbsnews.com). I'm working on e-mails to both them asking whether (a) this is the usual response of CBS to legitimate viewer criticism and (b) whether they would officially like to disavow this sort of customer non-service. I'll certainly let you know what, if any, response I get. No matter how snippy the response may be, the dodge and weave on the real issues on journalistic integrity come across loud and clear. Perhaps they should hear from you as well?
