I haven’t commented on this subject yet as I’ve been pretty consumed with the direct injustice of putting Terri Schiavo to death, but Michelle Malkin is all over the talking points story. She has the goods on the specifics and I suggest you check out her site if you haven’t done so already. I’d like to take a look at the lowest common denominator in this issue: whatever the “truth” may be regarding the source of the memos, the MSM’s one sided coverage is yet another clear sign that they continue to abuse their position as society’s news tellers by advocating rather than informing.
The memo was portrayed by the MSM as a damning indictment of GOP political opportunism on the back of a starving woman. When obvious suspicions regarding the memo arises there is silence in the media. What is particularily aggregious is impact that this failure to report has on public opinion. Not only do the suspicious aspects of the memo obviously lessen the validity of the original charges against the GOP, they may evidence precisely the opposite of what the original story portrayed- that while the Republicans (and some Democrats) where doing everything they could in their power to help Terri Schiavo, the Democrats were in the back rooms scheming for ways to capitalize politically on the Republicans’ efforts to save Terri. Yet the public is left with the original reporting as if nothing new has arisen.
The MSM is advocating not informing, and they are doing so under the pretense that they are the trusted purveyers of information.