Thursday, Nov 10 2005
I did not blog about the Grapevine yesterday, but developments this morning make it worthwhile. So let's take a look at Wednesday's Grapevine:
The Grapevine for Wednesday, November 9th, follows a recent trend for that segment in that once again it represents little more than a series of Whitehouse talking points. And in fact, much of the segment is almost indistinguishable from the "Grapevine" of November 7th. Hume again brings up the suspicious charges of general Paul Vallely, who claims that Joseph Wilson told him about his wife's employment while both were waiting to be interviewed for a Fox News segment. But today Brit Hume further notes that:
Now, what's interesting is that this morning, on "Imus in the Morning," host Don Imus had Andrea Mitchell on his show and specifically questioned here about this topic. Mitchell's answer: she claims to have been taken out of context, or to have possibly misspoken in the context of a long interview that touched on many points. She noted that she did not know Valerie Wilson's occupation before Robert Novak published his piece, and she expressed frustration that this quote has been seized on by right-wing bloggers who, at the same time, ignore eveything else she has said about the Wilson case.
Will Brit Hume retract this claim on a future Grapevine? It will be interesting to see what he does, if anything. However, I want to make one further point about this incident: the fact that Andrea Mitchell did not (to my knowledge) disown this comment until this morning gives Brit Hume little journalistic cover. One wonders why, if Hume was going to quote Mitchell, either he or one of his staffers did not take the time to contact the NBC reporter to double check her account before airing the segment in question. This is basic journalistic practice. Apparently, however, it is not basic journalistic practice for Hume, whose "Grapevine" segment appears to be little more than an unresearched, unverified regurgitation of propagandistic claims posted on right-wing blogs and conservative "news" outlets such as WorldNetdaily.
The Grapevine for Wednesday, November 9th, follows a recent trend for that segment in that once again it represents little more than a series of Whitehouse talking points. And in fact, much of the segment is almost indistinguishable from the "Grapevine" of November 7th. Hume again brings up the suspicious charges of general Paul Vallely, who claims that Joseph Wilson told him about his wife's employment while both were waiting to be interviewed for a Fox News segment. But today Brit Hume further notes that:
General Vallely, by the way, isn't the first to call Valerie Plame's job at the CIA an open secret. In 2003, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell said Plame's CIA job had been "widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community."
Now, what's interesting is that this morning, on "Imus in the Morning," host Don Imus had Andrea Mitchell on his show and specifically questioned here about this topic. Mitchell's answer: she claims to have been taken out of context, or to have possibly misspoken in the context of a long interview that touched on many points. She noted that she did not know Valerie Wilson's occupation before Robert Novak published his piece, and she expressed frustration that this quote has been seized on by right-wing bloggers who, at the same time, ignore eveything else she has said about the Wilson case.
Will Brit Hume retract this claim on a future Grapevine? It will be interesting to see what he does, if anything. However, I want to make one further point about this incident: the fact that Andrea Mitchell did not (to my knowledge) disown this comment until this morning gives Brit Hume little journalistic cover. One wonders why, if Hume was going to quote Mitchell, either he or one of his staffers did not take the time to contact the NBC reporter to double check her account before airing the segment in question. This is basic journalistic practice. Apparently, however, it is not basic journalistic practice for Hume, whose "Grapevine" segment appears to be little more than an unresearched, unverified regurgitation of propagandistic claims posted on right-wing blogs and conservative "news" outlets such as WorldNetdaily.
posted by Patriot's Quill at 6:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home