Inspired by Dan Rather's complete lack of integrity, I dug through the BTQ archives and found this old draft I had intended to post in May of 2004. My complaints are about Katie Couric, but they work for Danny Boy too.

The following report is an unprecedented attempt at humor sponsored by the non-partisan think-tank Bloggers for the Return of Journalist Integrity (BRJI):

In an unbelievable move, I shockingly slept through the alarm this morning. In the unimaginable rush to prepare for the day, I still managed to catch a few minutes of the Today Show featuring the incomparable Katie Couric. In an unprecedented report, Katie presented to dramatic story of a heroic Wisconsin mother who lost one of her three daughters in Iraq last week. In an unparalleled display of journalistic stupidity and as an extraordinary reminder of why I don't normally watch the Today Show, Katie demonstrated a striking level of sympathy with the mother while simultaneously comparing the woman's daughters to the real-life Sullivan brothers of World War II and the fictional Ryan brothers of Saving Private Ryan. The comparisons were spectacularly misplaced. Nevertheless, Katie bravely permitted the mother to plead for the return of her still-living daughters even as the mother explained that her daughters did not want her to violate the chain-of-command.

In the first ten minutes of the Today Show I lost count of the number of adjectives peppered throughout the news reports. Shocking murder? Hmm. Murders, gruesome, horrible murders occur every single day but this murder is shocking?Unimaginable violence? Really? No one can imagine that there is violence in Fallujah? The history of mankind is replete with examples of violence on a scale much larger than that of the firefights in Fallujah. It is indeed shocking that anyone considers the fighting in Iraq to be unimaginable.

Unprecedented report? No precedent? None? There is not a single example of an analagous situation ever in the history of the world? That is unimaginable! Wow. It's a good thing I caught the Today Show this morning.

I really get upset when reporters insist on editorializing within their news reports. It adds nothing of substance to the story but it does have the effect of skewing the story to reflect the reporters opinions. If the Humvee is green, then call it green. Don't describe it as a stunningly dull shade of green. If it stuns me or if I find it to be a dull green, then I can damn well figure that out on my own. If it stuns your reporter, she should keep that to herself. Or, if she is incapable of separating her personal opinions from the content of her news reports, then she should consider doing guest commentary on NPR instead of "reporting" the facts.

I have no problem with op-ed writers and Andy Rooney mixing fact and opinion. Most people understand that Paul Krugman's column and Andy Rooney's commentary on 60 Minutes are just that - commentary. [As opposed to partisan shilling, right Dan? --ed.] I submit that most people still believe that reporters are just reporting facts. [Perhaps this is less true today, as a result of Rathergate. --ed.] Should people be so naive? Perhaps not. However, I don't think the answer is, "Come on, everyone knows that journalists' stories reflect their own views and we all know that people cannot divorce themselves from their opinions." That answer might be sufficient except for the fact that journalism as a profession explicitly rejects the notion that news stories carry the inherent biases of the reporters. For example, the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics requires that journalists "Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context." In addition, the New York Times' Ethical Journalism Guidebook instructs Times reporters to provide "the complete, unvarnished truth." I have been unable to find an official statement of NBC's code of journalistic ethics, but I doubt if it permits editorializing in news reports. [In the context of Rathergate, note that the Radio-Television News Directors Association Code of Ethics is substantially similar to the codes of ethics set out above.]