I sent this to The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.
To whom it may concern,
Giving voice to David Brooks does not advance the mission of PBS to educate the public. He consistently distorts facts or simply lies to support the conservative agenda while giving the impression of balance.
In the discussion with Jim Lehrer regarding the revelation of the identity of Valerie Wilson (7/15/05), Brooks first dodged criticism of Karl Rove by claiming that the facts weren't clear, that "people called" Rove and that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, but later stated that Karl Rove was closer to the truth than is former ambassador Joe Wilson. Those two statements are contradictory, and Karl Rove has clearly lied about his contacts with the press. As evidence of Wilson's lack of credibility, Brooks stated that Wilson claimed falsely that Cheney had sent him to Niger. Actually, Wilson has never made this claim; it was attributed to him by Republicans, and Brooks is thus reporting a Republican "talking point", as he does incessantly. When Mark Shields noted a pattern of character attacks against Bush opponents by Rove, Brooks deflected the argument by taking it to the extreme and stating ironically that Rove is Satan.
Brooks and PBS commit a great disservice to the public by allowing falsehoods to be stated with impunity and without correction. As Jon Stewart observed to Charlie Rose, the current idea of a debate is to have two people giving opposite sides of an issue and to conclude that the truth must be somewhere in between. It is sad that PBS perpetrates this insanity. If one person is telling the truth and the other lying, the truth is not somewhere in the middle. Sadly, PBS is advancing the GOP agenda of diffusing scrutiny by sowing doubt.
David Brooks sullies the integrity of PBS.