As C&L and many others have reported last night, CBS news had a huge scoop Tuesday night on John McCain, because he falsely claimed that the surge was responsible for the "Sunni Awakening in Anbar." That is FALSE. The Sunnis changed positions before the surge was ever discussed so---McCain once again makes a major mistake on the one issue his campaign is running on---The Iraq war.

However, CBS probably violated its own rules (Standards and Practice) by altering the video of Katie Couric's interview with McCain that left out his major blunder on this issue and then broadcast it on our airwaves. CBS should not paste together separate answers from different questions to make it appear like an answer was fluid. It was completely taken out of context. I understand that a fair amount of editing has to be done, but what they did failed to meet the legitimacy test.

Here's what happened. ON CBS Nightly News, Katie Couric started off the segment with question #3 of her interview from their website version of the McCain interview:

Couric QUESTION #3: Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?

They then edited out his major gaffe on "the surge" and inserted his partial answer to question #1 and then spliced in a partial answer to question # 3 to make it appear to be a consistent response.

Q1 Sen. Obama has indicated that by his failure to acknowledge the success of the surge, that he would rather lose a war than lose a campaign.

Q3 Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed.

There will still be attacks. Al Qaeda's not defeated. But the progress has been immense. And to not recognize that, and why it happened, and how it happened, I think is really quite a commentary.

Here's part of his answer from question # 3 that they left on the cutting room floor and which exposes John McCain as not knowing what he's talking about once again about the war in Iraq.

I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed. They were out there. They were protecting these sheiks. We had the Anbar awakening. We now have a government that's effective...

It completely changes what he meant and actually said to Couric.

Here's the full transcript.

The story on their website is still solid, but the presentation on air was not and is outrageous. There must be some repercussions against this gaffe no matter who is involved and what happened. They need to come out and apologize for their ethical lapse.

Here's CBS's contact info:

TV Show CBS Evening News with Katie Couric

Producer (212) 975-3019 (212) 975-1893

evening@cbsnews.com

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/eveningnews/main3420.shtml

Arensberg Chloe Producer, (212) 975-3691, (212) 975-1893

Contct CBS and demand they a) explain themselves on this egregious action. b) to hold those accountable.

evening@cbsnews.com http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/eveningnews/main3420.shtml

(corrected--the draft published when it wasn't finished earlier)

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On the same day he trashed The New York Times on his blog for covering petty and completely meaningless tabloid stories (and nominated Peggy Noonan for a Pulitzer Prize), NBC's Brian Williams runs a 2+ minute "report" on the latest "controversy" surrounding teen superstar Miley Cyrus and the pictures Annie Leibovitz took of her for Vanity Fair magazine.

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MediaBloodhound notes that Williams spent almost twice as much time on this nonsense than he did on the landmark Supreme Court voting rights case decided yesterday.

What's more, Williams and NBC poorly handled those eighty whole seconds they allocated to the Supreme Court ruling on voter IDs. They not only failed to present one dissenting viewpoint - whether from a Supreme Court Justice, legal scholar, civil rights lawyer or voters in Indiana - but also to point out how this ruling will impact the upcoming primary in Indiana, where, as the Associated Press reported yesterday, "more than 20 percent of black voters do not have access to a valid photo ID."

Glenn wants to know, What Liberal Media?

C&L's Jamie Holly weighs in:

I think the ones who look at that picture as sexual are the ones we should be concerned about. Of course Drudge had this headline Sunday night:

UPDATE: Glenn has a "response" from Brian Williams to the Pentagon propaganda story, something Williams and the entire elite media has refused to cover.

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On the whole, print coverage of James Comey's revelations this week has been relatively strong. Newspapers were a little slower than the blogs at recognizing the significance of what Comey had to say, but as Dahlia Lithwick noted, “It took a day, but the newspapers finally caught up to the bloggers.”

Then, there’s the broadcast media, parts of which still haven’t caught up.

ABC and CBS still have not reported — on either their evening news or morning news broadcasts — former deputy attorney general James B. Comey’s account of what NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams May 15 called a “rare glimpse of a high-level, late-night power struggle” over the National Security Agency’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program. As NBC Nightly News justice correspondent Pete Williams reported May 15, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card attempted to pressure then-Attorney General John Ashcroft “at his [hospital] bedside … to approve an extension of the secret NSA warrantless eavesdropping program over strong Justice Department objections,” as Media Matters for America has noted.

Media Matters noted this yesterday afternoon, so I checked to see if either ABC or CBS noted the story at all last night. They didn’t.

The story has a little bit of everything — White House scandal, dramatic confrontation, stunning testimony, DC buzz, front-page articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times … for what, exactly, are ABC and CBS waiting?

via Sully:

"You're going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe. All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I'm up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn't left the efficiency apartment in two years" -- Brian Williams, anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," speaking before New York University journalism students on the challenges traditional journalism faces from online media.

My name is not Vinny. My name is John Doe...Opps..sorry....So what's wrong with effciencey apartments? What a wanker...

WaPo blogger William M. Arkin created a little dust up in the virtual pages of WaPo this week. A little background: After watching an NBC Nightly News report that had troops bemoaning the lack of support at home Arkin posted that the soldiers should be grateful that we do respect them, even if we don't support the mission.

Well, I'm sure you can guess how well that went over with many. WaPo's editors had to close the comments after more than 900 made it through their filters, most not so nice in tone. Apparently the masochist, Arkin responded again.

1500 comments and another closed thread later, Arkin had been insulted in every possible way. Never one to back away from a fight, Arkin takes issue with the ad hominem used in lieu of debate:

I'm trying to make sense of the worldview of those who have responded. For the critics, I have become the enemy and have been demonized. In that process, I have ceased being a person, an individual, or a human being, all essential to justify the campaign to annihilate me. I'm not trying to offer myself up as victim here, nor do I expect the critics to change their view. I'm merely pointing out the process and the implications of the dehumanization.

So what do you think? Arkin's plea for civility (one I share--you commenters can be brutal and seem to forget that there are real people behind the words you're reading) suggests that a civilized exchange is a lost art. Is it the anonymity of the internet? Is it that certain topics are just too provocative to discuss calmly? Or have we collectively forgotten our manners?

This seems like a good opportunity to also give big props to our site monitors. I see the grumbling about edited posts, but I give them full credit for trying to encourage real debate and keep the trollage to a minimum.

Bill O'Reilly rips John Kerry!

Watch that Loofah Bill:

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O'Reilly goes off when Kerry criticizes Fox news, Sinclair Broadcasting and conservative talk radio. Bill says that 80% of the media was for John Kerry! Of course he doesn't have any facts to back it up, and only uses the Pew Research group when it suits his purposes.

He justifys FOX's "Fair and balanced" policy by saying that he gave Kerry the benfit of the doubt, but when he dodged all the tough media venues, I critized him." Meaning when Kerry wouldn't come on the factor.

"Sean Hannity favored Bush, Allan Colmes voted for Kerry and Greta Van Susteren certainly gave Kerry the benefit of the doubt as well. If that's not a balanced presentation, I'm Howard Dean." OK Bill Dean, what about the other twenty one hours of programming? He lies about his viewership ratings making it sound like he gets a five and six constantly. The nielson Top Ten cable ratings for the week of 11/15/04-11/21/04 Bill(Dean) O'Reilly didn't make the top ten. SpongeBob was ranked athe the bottom with a 2.8. On Zap2it Bill Dean's ratings for 01/08/04 - 11/14/04 was a 2.7.

Looking at Nightly news rating: from Top5 NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.8 million viewers (7.6, 14). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 9.7 million viewers (6.8, 13) and the "CBS Evening News" 7.5 million (5.4, 10).

According to a Pew research poll(that we sited yesterday in The Chis Matthews piece):

People who watched Fox News: 71% voted Bush 22% voted Kerry.

Listened to radio: 62% voted Bush 36% voted Kerry.

In fact the data supports Kerry's claims. Bush faired much better in the supposed liberal biased forums; while Kerry got slaughtered in the conservative platforms.

Blogs in the News

Both Crooksandliars and Americablog found our way onto NBC this past week. AmericaBlog was seen on NBC' s Nightly News over the cell phone scandal last night and C&L was feautured on Sunday's "Date Line" about the War on Christmas featuring Letterman vs O'Reilly.

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On Tuesday, Bill O'Reilly responded to Date Line's piece on him and Letterman. In Bill's mind it's all a plot by the media to silence conservatives and people of faith.

NBCs Nightly News: Pans Bush's Troop Photo-Op

The MSM jumped in on this silly exercice by the president and his staff to use the troops shamelessly to promote the Iraq war.

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Andrea Mitchell and David Gergen reported that the Bush administration uses the troops for PR more than any other administration before them.

E-mails: Michael Brown needed his dinner before helping NOLA

NBC Nightly News and Countdown ran this story last night involving FEMA's Marty Bahamonde pleading for help with Michael Brown, and getting an email reply straight out of the "Twilight Zone."

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Brown's press secretary: "It is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner..."

I only thought Michael Brown was incompetent.

NBC Nightly News special report

"I am baffled that any American company would want to have employees operating in Iran," says Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "I would think they'd be ashamed."

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Sources close to the Halliburton investigation tell NBC News that after that announcement, Halliburton decided that business with Iran, then conducted through at least five companies, would all be done through a subsidiary incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

"The purpose of these sanctions is to dissuade Iran from supporting terrorism and from seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction."

Our Vice President's old company has been doing business with Iran for years and that seems to be OK with everybody on the right. Does Susan Collins think that Dick Cheney should be ashamed?