Minor sanity bubbled briefly to the top in Washington, as Rep. Joe Barton, the the head of the House Commerce Committee (which has regulatory oversight of the broadcast industry), has rejected requests to have his committee dig into the CBS phony memo scandal.
“A news organization’s responsibility is to facts and truth, but the oversight of network news generally is a matter best sorted out by the viewing public and the news media,” he said. “I do not personally believe these documents are legitimate, and it seems clear that the press and the two presidential campaigns are properly dealing with that issue.”
Indeed. The ratings slippage for CBS News (already running third, and now dropping further) is more of a just punishment for what happened than whatever the government could do. Further, having the government “investigate” a journalistic organization in that fashion could only have a chilling effect on journalism in general, which would not be a good thing.
They’ve already shot themselves in the foot. Ordering a firing squad wouldn’t help — and would only, in fact, garner CBS sympathy.
A co-worker is a brother of a Congressman. His opinion was this was merely meant to be a shot across the bow. Within moments of the original proposal there was a widespread cry across the blogosphere that this was REALLY STUPID.
Yuppers.