This won't be a very substantive diary, but there is something I really wanted to put out there. Put quite simply, I now respect Rachel Maddow as a journalist more than any other talking head on the tee vee and the chicken scratchers who fill the pages of newspapers and magazines every day.
Yes, most of us on DKos respect Rachel and enjoy the show. So what makes me want to take up Markos' bandwidth for such an obvious assertation?
Well thanks for asking. Explanation below the fold.
To put it frankly, Rachel knows when she made a mistake and takes steps to correct it.
This evening, Rachel led with the tragedy in Binghamton. The very next segment featured Rachel, of all things, making a correction. On Wednesday and Thursday, The Rachel Maddow Show included clips from an interview Gen. Colin Powell. Before airing the segment in which she asked the General about torture policy, Rachel mentioned that the exchange was "tense."
It turns out that Gen. Powell did not feel tense, even if Rachel did. Unfortunately, I do not have the exact transcript, but Rachel said something to the effect that she does not want to put words into guests' mouths. So this evening she took the time to clarify the fact that Gen. Powell did not think the exchange was tense. (Incidentally, you would feel tense, too, if you were grilling the only respectable former Bush administration official about Bush's torture policies.)
If you haven't seen the videos, take a few minutes and check them out. (I couldn't get the embed to work.)
Here's the clip in question:
(Note: she mentioned earlier in the show that this part was "tense," but does not mention it in this clip.)
As a former print reporter (with ethics), I understand the idea of a corrections policy. Most reporters would like to forget about the fact that they put incorrect information into the public discourse. (For corrections, see page 4-D between the tide reports and Mallard Filmore.) I, on the other hand, occasionally ran corrections on the front page if the error was big enough and it appeared on the front page the previous week. This caused more than one argument with the editor and the publisher. Even when I was overruled or scolded for it, I felt better about having done/tried to do the right thing.
Rachel's correction was not a big deal. It wasn't even anything substantive. Just a small clarification about the guest's feelings at the time. It speaks volumes, though. Consider the last time some right wing joker was on television or radio or writing in a newspaper and said/wrote something inaccurate. Okay, not just inaccurate. I'm talking about a really big bald faced lie.
Something like this:
On CBS' Late Show with David Letterman, Bill O'Reilly resurrected his false claim that a Wisconsin elementary school banned the singing of the Christmas hymn "Silent Night," erroneously attributing the school's changed lyrics to political correctness. In fact, the new lyrics were merely part of a 1988 Christmas play called The Little Tree's Christmas Gift. Later in the interview, Letterman admonished O'Reilly, asserting, "I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap."
Or this:
O’Reilly Lies: I Always Let People Explain Themselves Or Appear On My Show Before Harassing Them
Or these:
HANNITY: "You're not listening, Susan. You've got to learn something. He had weapons of mass destruction. He promised to disclose them. And he didn't do it. You would have let him go free; we decided to hold him accountable." (4/13/04)
HANNITY: "I never questioned anyone's patriotism." (9/18/03)
HANNITY: "If he (Kerry) had his way and the CIA would almost be nonexistent." (1/30/04)
Hey, guys? Corrections? Retractions?
*crickets chirping
That's what I thought. Ideology aside, this is what makes for a good journalist.
Photo source. You'll enjoy it.
Update: This was not the most important story on this evening's broadcast by any measure. Please go visit Lady Libertine's diary discussing Rachel's coverage of the journalists being held by North Korea.
Update II: Thanks for the comments, everyone. I need to go to bed now (actually several hours ago). I'll be back tomorrow to hand out more mojo.