BCT Editorial – 7/27/10

This is simply another in a line of editorials claiming the mainstream media can be trusted but the nonmainstream media cannot.  What we have is a pot-calling-the-kettle-black story coming from the “12 alive” Times.  More recently, let’s remember Sunday’s editorials claiming a state senator supported her home community “freeloading” regarding police protection when in fact the senator submitted a bill to stop the practice just over a year ago.  Today’s editorial “Go slow” is yet another example.

Hysterically, the editorial tries to compare the Shirley Sherrod episode to Rathergate when they aren’t comparable at all.  Though the initial video we saw of Ms. Sherrod was only an excerpt of an NAACP recording of her entire speech, it was not doctored.  I don’t know about all broadcast and cable news outlets, but the video didn’t even appear on Fox News Channel or its website until hours after the Obama administration forced Ms. Sherrod to quit.  In Rathergate, the documents were forgeries and experts warned the Rather 60 Minutes II team the documents were suspect before the story aired.  You may be interested to know my records indicate this appears to be the first Times editorial to mention Rathergate.  It’s interesting to see what merits a nearly full-column Times editorial and what receives no mention for nearly six years.

Here’s the bottom line.  The Times doesn’t like the fact the mainstream media no longer has a monopoly on determining the news we hear, read, and see.

Finally, I continue to get a kick out of Times editorials writing about “talk radio and the 24/7 infotainment cable TV channels.”  The top banner of the Times homepage says “News, Sports and Entertainment for Beaver County.”  Doesn’t that make the Times itself an “infotainment” publication?