On NPR yesterday, there was an interesting story about the fallout from the Hutton Report for the BBC. Compared to the pathology of the Insane Chimp Posse in the US media, Andrew Gilligan's infractions were fairly minor. He introduced the term "sexed-up" and got David Kay to agree with it, then made it sound like Kay's term. He also sandbagged his superiors by deviating from his prepared remarks during a live interview.
As a result, the BBC has introducd some reforms:
- Notes must be taken during an interview, not retrieved from memory later.
- There's a ban on live two-way interviews for important breaking news.
- There's a ban on live two-way interviews from a reporter's home (I don't get this one, though it conjures up the image of Cokie Roberts commenting for NPR while hubby Steve tickles her feet and makes funny faces, surely a scenario to be avoided).
- BBC reporters will have to take some courses on research and methods, and will be promoted accordingly.
The last one is what I want to expand on in the extended copy.
Here's the NPR link:
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1972377
Should Kerry become preznit, I'd like to see his staff insist on some standards for WH reporters. Before they get WH credentials, they should be forced to take courses on Research, Ethics, Writing and History. The courses should be very difficult and should incorporate hundreds of bad reports from the last few years as negative examples. In other words, make Bushwhores like David Gregory and Elizabeth Bumiller wallow in their own filth until they see the error of their ways, or no turkee EVER. Furthermore, the media outlets should have to pay through the nose for these courses--I think a million dollars for every whore reformed, with the money going to some appropriate cause, like scholarships for the children of KIAs in Iraq, or physical therapy for disabled vets.
I welcome your suggestions for further ways to forcibly reeducate the ideologically unsound lackeys of the War Party, or just humiliate them for sport.