The Myth of Journalistic Ethics

Don’t you just love it when the media unwittingly admits to the entire world that they are indeed as biased as the bloggers of the web and the conservative talk-radio hosts of the airwaves claim them to be? Apparently they were unable to contain their glee long enough after the dust had settled following the ‘Memogate’ debacle that they had to bring veteran news anchor Dan Rather out of hiding and award one of their very own with the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in journalism.

With thanks to two former colleagues who left CBS in the wake of a scandal, CBS News' Dan Rather accepted broadcast journalism's most prestigious honor on Monday for the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story that exposed the shocking conditions inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Sure, I can hear his acceptance speech now, “Thanks for taking the heat off me for a few moments to allow me to make a clean break guys. Now that is what I call taking one for the home team!” And on the subject of Abu Ghraib, which was hardly a scandal but instead a perfect demonstration of the use of CIA interrogation tactics in obtaining critical information and controlling unstable prisoner environments, too bad they could not apply the exact same type of 'journalistic excellence' in their coverage, or lack thereof, of the beheading of Nick Berg.