I don’t know when the last time was that a news anchor slammed his own network for shoddy journalism, but Sheppard Smith did it, to Fox News, his employer, over its complicity in the Shirley Sherrod fiasco. The criticism is well deserved. Now if only Sheppard would start calling out his network regularly when they do similar things, we might have a reliable news source one of these days.
And then, maybe some anchors at CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC (no, MSNBC is beyond hope) would start doing their own policing! Imagine! Self-policing by the news media! Soon reporters will be free of bias, and stories won’t be hyped or buried according the news room’s political preferences! And there will be the dawning of a great new day in responsible journalism, where truth, not spin or entertainment value or ratings, will be the only goal! And we’ll be able to trust what we hear and read!!
Naaa.
Still, Sheppard Smith did the right thing. Good for him.
Ethics Alarms 
I don’t think MSNBC is beyond hope. Maddow, Mathews, Schultz, Ratigan, and Olberman are very left, altho M&M often have interesting conversations with conservative guests. But MSNBC has some real reporters and some fair-minded people–Richard Engel (mostly in Afghanistan now) Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle, Chuck Todd.
I think Sheppard Smith and Major Garrett are decent reporters, but no more honest than the ones I mentioned.
Only Chuck Todd qualifies as a reporter, however. (I forgot about Barnicle, but I can’t be objective about him: he’s a big Red Sox fan.) The opinion guys—well, O’Reilly slams Fox sometimes, but it’s part of his schtick. Does MSCBC even have a new anchor? Maybe I should have said that they don’t really report or purport to…it’s an opinion channel. That’s why the coverage of conventions and elections by people like Maddow and Olberman rub me the wrong way. It’s not reporting when the reporter is sneering or cheering. I actually respect Chris Matthews, who’s a smart, passionate, old-school liberal and patriot—even though he jumps the rails now and then (like his infamous “tingle up his leg” comment.)
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