James Kirchick
Sunday, December 13th 2009
political correspondent. She also offers insightful, often left-of-center
commentary on Fox News a network that decidedly skews right.
So, it was only a matter of time before NPR executives would try to pressure
Liasson to stop appearing on Fox.
According to Politico, NPR honchos in October told Liasson she should
"reconsider" appearing on the network.
Liasson stood her ground and is still a Fox regular. You can add this
episode to the vast catalogue of incidents demonstrating the American left's
intolerance for the airing of views that dissent from liberal orthodoxy. But
what's so chilling about this revelation is that NPR's attempt to silence
Liasson occurred just as the White House's war against Fox News was in full
gear. NPR denies that it coordinated with the Obama administration, and
that's probably true, as the station didn't need prompting. As early as this
February, station executives asked NPR contributor Juan Williams not to
identify himself as such when appearing on "The O'Reilly Factor."
NPR should be pleased to have exposure on the country's top cable news
channel, but the station panicked when the mere presence of Liasson led to
complaints from the station's liberal listeners - most of whom, I'll wager,
never even watch Fox.
Station execs never accused Liasson of saying anything objectionable during
her Fox appearances. It was simply her attendance at the news desk that so
angered Fox's critics.
NPR is not alone in its assault on Fox.
By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to
undermine the role of legitimate news organizations," declared Jacob
Weisberg in a Newsweek column titled "Why Fox News Is Un-American" (remember
that title the next time a liberal accuses a conservative of "questioning my
patriotism"). "Respectable journalists - I'm talking to you, Mara Liasson -
should stop appearing on its programs," Weisberg insisted.
If Weisberg is so determined to root out violators of the Fourth Estate's
vaunted ethical standards, he need only venture down the hallways at
Newsweek, where his colleagues are doing a good job trying to "undermine the
role" of a "legitimate news organization" by appearing on Fox's liberal
competitor, MSNBC.
During last year's presidential campaign, Richard Wolffe, Newsweek's Obama
correspondent, appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" several
nights a week. The magazine's Washington, Howard Fineman, and senior editor
Jonathan Alter also are regular guests.
"Countdown" is as relentlessly partisan, if not more so, than any of Fox's
personality-driven opinion programs, and the frequent appearance of
Newsweek's senior writers on the show is a greater affront to journalistic
ethics than Liasson's joining a Fox roundtable in which various opinions are
expressed. On "Countdown," it is not unusual to hear the accusation that the
GOP is the "leading terrorist group in this country," as Olbermann once
alleged. This week Olbermann compared compromise on the health care bill to
Munich (even quoting Winston Churchill), thus equating those who oppose the
costly public option with the Third Reich.
It would be one thing if Olbermann's guests ever challenged his views,
something that happens regularly on "The O'Reilly Factor." But Olbermann
never invites people onto his program who disagree with him. Indeed, when
the Washington Post writer and frequent Olbermann guest Dana Milbank wrote
an article critical of President Obama, Olbermann kicked him off the show.
"Countdown" is nothing more than an echo chamber for the hysterical
readership of Daily Kos and MoveOn.org.
And Newsweek is more than happy to play along.
This year, Fineman went beyond the bounds of journalistic propriety by
introducing Olbermann at a political fund-raiser. "He's not a liberal,"
Fineman gushed. "What Keith is is an anti-establishment character who
doesn't want people in power to get away with things." Fineman added that
Olbermann "rediscovered the role of journalism and that role is deeply
informed judgment about people in power and about the morality of our
country."
Spoken like a true sap.
Wolffe, given his erstwhile status as the magazine's chief campaign
correspondent, a position from which he should have at least made an effort
to appear evenhanded, was the worst of the magazine's offenders. After the
election, he wrote an embarrassingly worshipful book about the Obama
campaign, directly thanking Olbermann in the acknowledgments for "your
talent and courage, your good humor and support." This summer he guest
hosted for Olbermann, the apotheosis of a slavish career. He has since found
his true calling: corporate public relations. At least Wolffe's clients are
now paying him for his services.
So Weisberg sees fit to criticize Liasson for giving bloodless commentary in
Fox News panel discussions, yet doesn't grasp that there's a problem with
his colleagues publicly praising, nodding along beside and guest-hosting for
a raging, foam-at-the-mouth crackpot who regularly compares his intellectual
adversaries with Nazis.
Mara Liasson may be generating a great deal of listener complaints. But it
isn't NPR that needs to worry about its reputation being tarnished by
employees appearing on a certain cable news channel.
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