CBS Edits Out McCain's POW/Kitchen Table Comment

[babylonsister]

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/08/cbs-edits-out-m.html

CBS Edits Out McCain's POW/Kitchen Table Comment

Earlier today, I posted a video of John McCain's answer to a question posed by Katie Couric about his homes gaffe. Tonight, I happened to watch CBS Evening News -- the broadcast edition -- and lo and behold, they had completely cut out his POW comment. Instead of airing his full answer, they picked up at the point where he talks about his wife's father's WWII service.

I think there's two issues here. The most obvious one is whether or not this reveals bias on the part of CBS, and if so, in which direction. That's not an easy question. One could argue it hurts McCain to exclude the POW stuff because that's his strongest card; one could also argue that it helps McCain to exclude the POW stuff because he's overusing it and cheapening its value.

But the more important issue is that it's actually newsworthy that McCain once again resorted to the "I was a POW" line to defend his forgetfulness (or his unwillingness to say). Imagine what the media would do if Barack Obama said something like "you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bill." (Oh yeah, we already know what would happen -- and it happened without single mention of McCain's ad mocking Obama's face on a hundred dollar bill, I might add.)

My bottom-line is that even though including the line in their broadcast might have given McCain a short-term boost, I think cutting it out altogether showed very bad judgment in determining what is and what is not news. In fact, instead of editing out, CBS News should have engaged in a discussion about McCain's emerging pattern of hiding behind the POW defense to excuse away every single line of criticism that is leveled at him.

Youtube here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x173939

[Hope And Change]

1. K & R!

[writes3000]

2. At this point, I suspect McCain's camp tells CBS what they want edited out...

And CBS complies because they want future interviews with McCain.

[babylonsister]

3. If that's so, they need to change their name; too bad inside edition is taken. nt

[liberal N proud]

4. They didn't on the segment for CBS - Face the Nation

I saw that comment on Sunday morning and just about lost it.

[babylonsister]

5. .

[No Elephants]

6. Contact CBS and complain about bias!