Media Bias Alive and Well at NBC News

On the Corner earlier this week, K-Lo provided a transcript of a letter from Ed Gillespie @ the GOP to the president of NBC News. It’s a must read for anyone interested in (or who still denies) Media Bias. The lack of journalistic integrity over at NBC News is truly outrageous. I'd threaten to stop watching, but I haven't watched in years. Anyway, the letter begins thusly:

This e-mail is to formally request that NBC Nightly News and The Today Show air for their viewers President Bush's actual answer to correspondent Richard Engel's question about Iran policy and "appeasement," rather than the deceptively edited version of the President's answer that was aired last night on the Nightly News and this morning on The Today Show.

Gillespie's subsequent points were that W's remarks before the Knesset were the same as all his past policy statements, the "appeasement" line needed to be put in context, and the U.S. has a long-standing policy position against negotiating with terrorists...so all the whipped-up frenzy was unnecessary. He referred to NBC's "deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline" as "utterly misleading and irresponsible." Gillespie then went on to say the following:

As long as I am making this formal request, please allow me to take this opportunity to ask if your network has reconsidered its position that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war, especially in light of the fact that the unity government in Baghdad recently rooted out illegal, extremist groups in Basra and reclaimed the port there for the people of Iraq, among other significant signs of progress.

On November 27, 2006, NBC News made a decision to no longer just cover the news in Iraq, but to make an analytical and editorial judgment that Iraq was in a civil war. As you know, both the United States government and the Government of Iraq disputed your account at that time. As Matt Lauer said that morning on The Today Show: "We should mention, we didn't just wake up on a Monday morning and say, 'Let's call this a civil war.' This took careful deliberation.'"

How nice to know that Matt Lauer, our nation's foremost expert on military and political affairs, was part of the careful deliberation that led to this "news." We certainly approve of such an accomplished foreign policy expert as Where-In-The-World Lauer. I mean, we've all seen his Tango, so, 'nuf said. Gillespie continues:

I noticed that around September of 2007, your network quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as a "civil war." Is it still NBC News's carefully deliberated opinion that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war? If not, will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?

Gillespie's letter ends thus:

Mr. Capus, I'm sure you don't want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the "news" as reported on NBC and the "opinion" as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines. I welcome your response to this letter, and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network's viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olberman at MSNBC don't hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division.