The trouble with journalists

For those of you who haven't been following the Rathergate story too closely (that includes me), here is an excellent piece on CBS producer Mary Mapes. She was the intermediary between the DNC's Joe Lockhart and professional Texas curmudgeon Bill Burkett - Allah has a good post on this connection.

The AP article has a quote about Mapes that demonstrates the problem with the state of so-called objective journalism in this country:

"She definitely was someone who was motivated by what she cared about and definitely went into journalism to make a difference," Carlson said. "She's not the sort of person who went into journalism to report the news and offer an array of commentary."

This, unfortunately, is often the primary motivation with journalism students. They want to make a difference. Translated, that means they want to bring to the profession their myopic world view and hatred for the "establishment" and bring down as many rich, white, heterosexual, male conservatives as possible.

This study by the Media Research Center demonstrates that this is not merely anecdotal evidence. The fact that 9 out of 10 journalists admitted to voting for Clinton in 1992 is just one example of how leftist ideology runs through the journalism world like a fast-spreading cancer.

Mapes is a shining example of the media elites' tendency to allow their ideology to infect the way they create, report and slant the news in the favor of whichever cause-of-the-week-obsession they're pushing. Sometimes the bias isn't in what is said or written, but in what stories the news broadcast or newspaper covers and which stories get the highest profile and most atttention.

In a USA Today story, Burkett said he agreed to turn documents impugning Bush's service - widely considered now to be fake - over to CBS on the condition CBS would help arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign. Burkett's lawyer, Gabe Quintanilla, said he could not immediately confirm that Tuesday.

CBS acknowledged Mapes passed on Burkett's number to Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart, and Lockhart called him. Spokeswoman Kelli Edwards said CBS wasn't aware that this was part of any deal, but it's one of the things that will be examined by an independent commission CBS will soon appoint to look into the incident.

In Mapes case, she has a history of manufacturing the news and acting as go-between in an effort to create stories. Via Fox:

It is also not the first time that Mapes has agreed to be a go-between in a controversial setting. FOX News has obtained a letter written to Mapes by the warden of a high security federal prison in Colorado.

He accused the CBS producer of concocting a scheme to help secretly pass information between convicted white supremacist Peter Langan (search) and another federal prisoner, a violation of federal regulations.

"Phone monitoring reveals that you agreed to this request," the letter reads. "Your attempted misuse of the special mail privileges placed members of the public at risk."

I'm certain none of this is unique to CBS.

Still, it's a lapse in journalistic ethics if true, said Marvin Kalb, senior fellow at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

"Journalists do all kinds of odd things these days to get a news story," Kalb said, "but one of the things they should not be doing is paying the price of a political contact."

Well, who's going to put them in journalist jail? The press police?

The funniest part of the whole Mapes affair has to be this quote:

"It is obviously against CBS News standards and those of every other reputable news organization to be associated with any political agenda," (CBS Spokes-sheep Kelli) Edwards said.

I guess Kelli Edwards hasn't watched the news in 30 or 40 years.

Other folks covering Rathergate much more thoroughly than I:

Allah
LaShawn Barber - reaping the leftist whirlwind
Wizbang
Say Anything
The Commissar - the number of Americans without health insurance about to increase by one
Right on Red - discovered secret photos of Lucy Ramirez