2008 Woodie Awards
Press watch out: Pundit police are always on duty
Correspondents held to higher standard during election time, kept on toes by viewers, Web
David Bauder
The Associated Press
Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: The Mix
NEW YORK - Fewer than a half-million people were watching MSNBC when David Shuster made his comment that Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign had "pimped out" daughter Chelsea by having her make political phone calls.
Among them were monitors at Newsbusters. The Web site posted video of Shuster 10 minutes after the show was over, beginning a reaction that led to his two-week suspension.
The pundit police never go off duty.
Say something stupid, offensive or incorrect on television and you're going to hear about it‚ fast.
Web sites and bloggers record everything on news programs, an obsessive attention that can foster a hypersensitivity over words and deepen the nation's partisan divide. Without question, they remind pundits that it's important to think before they speak.
"If you're on television, you have the responsibility to be truthful and honest and do your best," said Amy Holmes, a commentator who has worked at Fox News Channel, MSNBC and now CNN. "But I think some of these pundit police hold people to an impossible standard."
It's been a particularly rough month at NBC. Besides Shuster, Chris Matthews apologized after suggesting Clinton's political prominence was due to her husband's infidelities. The watchdog Media Matters for America said there are many other instances where Matthews had been unusually critical of Clinton. The "Today" show had to say it was sorry Thursday after guest Jane Fonda used a vulgarity.
Shuster's words had few defenders, but TV legend Barbara Walters expressed some sympathy for his predicament. Sometimes you say something unfortunate on live TV, she said on "The View."
"He's getting suspended, he apologized, MSNBC apologized," she said. "Drop it already! It's OK. He made a mistake."
Two pundit police chiefs are Media Matters, from the left, and the Media Research Center, from the right. The MRC operates Newsbusters.
Media Matters was founded in 2004 by David Brock, the former conservative who switched allegiances. Its goal is to watch conservative media figures and hang them by their words, publicizing their statements to the wider world and challenging them on facts.
Among them were monitors at Newsbusters. The Web site posted video of Shuster 10 minutes after the show was over, beginning a reaction that led to his two-week suspension.
The pundit police never go off duty.
Say something stupid, offensive or incorrect on television and you're going to hear about it‚ fast.
Web sites and bloggers record everything on news programs, an obsessive attention that can foster a hypersensitivity over words and deepen the nation's partisan divide. Without question, they remind pundits that it's important to think before they speak.
"If you're on television, you have the responsibility to be truthful and honest and do your best," said Amy Holmes, a commentator who has worked at Fox News Channel, MSNBC and now CNN. "But I think some of these pundit police hold people to an impossible standard."
It's been a particularly rough month at NBC. Besides Shuster, Chris Matthews apologized after suggesting Clinton's political prominence was due to her husband's infidelities. The watchdog Media Matters for America said there are many other instances where Matthews had been unusually critical of Clinton. The "Today" show had to say it was sorry Thursday after guest Jane Fonda used a vulgarity.
Shuster's words had few defenders, but TV legend Barbara Walters expressed some sympathy for his predicament. Sometimes you say something unfortunate on live TV, she said on "The View."
"He's getting suspended, he apologized, MSNBC apologized," she said. "Drop it already! It's OK. He made a mistake."
Two pundit police chiefs are Media Matters, from the left, and the Media Research Center, from the right. The MRC operates Newsbusters.
Media Matters was founded in 2004 by David Brock, the former conservative who switched allegiances. Its goal is to watch conservative media figures and hang them by their words, publicizing their statements to the wider world and challenging them on facts.
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