Saturday, May 12, 2007
CBS News Boots Bush-Bashing General
Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste has been asked to leave his post as a CBS News consultant after he participated in an ad criticizing President Bush.
In the television ad – sponsored by the VoteVets Action Fund – Batiste declares: "Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”
CBS News’ Vice President for Standards and Special Projects, Linda Mason, told CBSNews.com’s Public Eye: "When we hire someone as a consultant, we want them to share their expertise with our viewers. By putting himself front and center in an anti-Bush ad, the viewer might have the feeling everything he says is anti-Bush. And that doesn’t seem like an analytical approach to the issues we want to discuss.”
Mason said Batiste violated CBS News standards, and asserted that the decision would have been the same if he had appeared in an ad supporting the war.
CBS’s sudden displeasure with Batiste’s active anti-war stance might surprise some, since the General – who commanded the First Infantry Division in Iraq – has said he left the military in protest over American conduct of the war.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste has been asked to leave his post as a CBS News consultant after he participated in an ad criticizing President Bush.
In the television ad – sponsored by the VoteVets Action Fund – Batiste declares: "Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”
CBS News’ Vice President for Standards and Special Projects, Linda Mason, told CBSNews.com’s Public Eye: "When we hire someone as a consultant, we want them to share their expertise with our viewers. By putting himself front and center in an anti-Bush ad, the viewer might have the feeling everything he says is anti-Bush. And that doesn’t seem like an analytical approach to the issues we want to discuss.”
Mason said Batiste violated CBS News standards, and asserted that the decision would have been the same if he had appeared in an ad supporting the war.
CBS’s sudden displeasure with Batiste’s active anti-war stance might surprise some, since the General – who commanded the First Infantry Division in Iraq – has said he left the military in protest over American conduct of the war.
