CBS's Katie Couric on Wednesday night used an Interior Department sex and drug scandal to snidely frame a story around how “the Bush administration has long been accused of having too close a relationship with the oil industry. Just how close is documented in new reports just out today.” The ABC and NBC evening newscasts also ran full stories on three new reports from the Interior Department's inspector general about the staffers of the Minerals Management Service, mostly in Colorado, but refrained from the overtly political characterization.
Turning to reporter Sharyl Attkisson, Couric opined: “This sounds pretty embarrassing.” Attkisson agreed as she immediately brought President Bush into the story: “It is, Katie. The investigative reports were released a day after President Bush had a private lunch with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the man in charge of the agency at the heart of the scandal. That was behind closed doors. Today's embarrassment was very public.”
From the September 10 WashingtonPost.com story, “Interior Dept. Officials Embroiled in Energy Ethics Scandal,” it does not appear many of those involved were political appointees. That story summarized:
Government officials in charge of collecting billions of dollars worth of royalties from oil and gas companies accepted lavish gifts, steered contracts to favored firms and engaged in illicit sex with employees of the energy companies, federal investigators reported today.
In contrast, on ABC's World News, the set up from Charles Gibson stuck to the facts without bringing in pejorative characterizations:
Federal investigators released a stinging report today that finds government employees, who were supposed to oversee the oil industry, were sleeping with energy company workers, doing drugs with them and accepting gifts from them. The report from the Interior Department's inspector general concludes there was a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity involving some Interior Department workers. Here's ABC's Lisa Stark.
Brian Williams, on the NBC Nightly News, also refrained from using the news for a cheap political hit:
Now to a brewing scandal that has just late today been revealed involving the U.S. Department of the Interior, the cabinet agency responsible for this nation's public lands. The agency's inspector general found some employees in a totally dysfunctional environment, allegedly doing things including accepting gifts from oil companies, engaging in rampant substance abuse and sexual misconduct and steering contracts to friends. The story tonight from NBC's Tom Costello.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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revenge?
September 10, 2008 - 21:13 ET by nicholas nicklebyDo you think Couric was trying to get revenge on the Republicans for the McCain ad "Lipstick" which quotes her out of context? (She says something about "sexism" after showing Palin make her lipstick remark and Obama making his lipstick remark--except Couric's quote was actually about Hillary from before Palin was even the nominee.)
Also, are you claiming that CBS is biased on this one news story and WaPo, ABC, and NBC are unbiased? I think that's what your story implies--that we can trust NBC now. Is that what you mean, Brent?
The scandal in the interior department
September 10, 2008 - 21:26 ET by Dr_Libertygives a whole new meaning to "lube job."
<insert witty signature here>
How does she know?
September 10, 2008 - 21:27 ET by Kevin HalpernThat the federal employees involved are not Democrats?
KH... Exactly...I can't
September 10, 2008 - 21:45 ET by bigtimerKH...
Exactly...I can't believe the way the msm has been reporting this as if this all just a bunch of conservatives that work for the Bush administration....
They should be careful what they wish for...but then again, if they find out this is not exactly what they were hoping for..they will remain mum...figuring their mission was accomplished.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Those agencies tend to be
September 10, 2008 - 22:00 ET by robert108Those agencies tend to be populated with lots of leftie "lifers" who want nothing more than to live on the taxpayer dollar. Not conservatives, for sure.
Robert, "Those agencies
September 11, 2008 - 08:42 ET by Dan The Man 2Robert, "Those agencies tend to be populated with lots of leftie "lifers" who want nothing more than to live on the taxpayer dollar. Not conservatives, for sure" these is fighting words. I work for governmnet and it is a job, with a higher ethical standard than most. The people who did wrong should be punished but it seems they had ethic lapses anyway. Dont paint the whole with a large brush.
The government work tends to be paid less than the outside but some of teh benefits and stability make up for it. As in all jobs there are tradeoffs, but do not mistake it as a job and we are not sucking at the government teat.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Couric - dead last in the
September 10, 2008 - 22:16 ET by jdhawkCouric - dead last in the drive by media anchors for a reason . . .
CBS "News" producers - figuring, yet again, how to take ratings to new lows . . .
Career employees at the Interior Department - if dimocrats, adding political enhancing elements to their resumes; if Republicans how to get fired and thrown in jail . . .
couric
September 10, 2008 - 22:32 ET by jaywl+She can't help it. I was going to bash her, because she really is a stooge of the left, but thought I would check out her Wiki. Very interesting. She received an Emmy for local news, likes showing her legs (cut off the front of a desk!), is a plagiarist (as writer, managing editor and anchor, the bag is hers), is in another bag for Obama (including changing a story about the old Muslim Barrack praying in a mosque), and using her position to push her pet interests. Oh yes, she will probably be fired because fewer and fewer people want to watch her, her legs, her mouth, her biased "news" show, or listen to her twist good news into bad. So I decided not to bash her and let her Wiki do it for her.
Happy she left the morning show.
September 11, 2008 - 10:51 ET by MaximusBraveheartMy wife turns her former network on in the AM. Glad when she left. Still liberal but at least no Couric. Not a journalist; less than even Clinton's mouthpiece now "reporter:" Geo. Stephenapolis (sp?)! I think Couric's sister works in the Dem party directly? Couric does too; just poses as "news."
Katie needs to lube herself
September 10, 2008 - 23:01 ET by dmannKatie needs to lube herself prior to quaffing the big O's talking points! She is the antithesis of Palin....
Couric what about the Obama sex scandal?
September 11, 2008 - 00:25 ET by Lame CherryCouric and the networks really got worked up about all those big pumping derriks out of virgin lands drilled deep rolling around in the bed of fornication of Bush with the lubrication of oil companies.
As this is a story for Couric, then Barack Obama riding around in a Chicago limo picking up a gay male in Lawrence Sinclair where Barack purchased 200 dollars worth of cocaine products and received two oral oil derrick gushers.
Now as Bush is interesting to the networks in a mess being made in Colorado, then certainly an Obama gusher in Chicago involving adultery, coke, the Chicago corrupt network using black people for profits.
Come on Couric stop being so lesbian in nature in only noticing female subjects and swing it both ways in covering the Obama sex scandal.
http://larrysinclair...
Oh and Katie, the Obama people threw Lawrence Sinclair in prison and currently stole his Social Security number and are impersonating him.
Little Obama hate crime there.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
Those agencies tend to be
September 11, 2008 - 03:10 ET by CooltomThose agencies tend to be populated with lots of leftie "lifers" who want nothing more than to live on the taxpayer dollar. Not conservatives, for sure.
Yes, indeed. Liberals seem to be under the impression that an incoming Republican President's first act is to fire all 2 million federal employees and replace them with loyal GOP soldiers. The executive has only 3,000 appointed jobs IIRC. The rest are civil service, some who have served under numerous administrations and parties.
They also assume that every fed employee is on the same team as the sitting President, who daily calls each and every one of the 2 milion with detailed instructions. And if one of these G-7 employees messes up or is corrupt he was acting under direct orders from the Prez.
This also crops up whenever a current or ex-government employee says something that reflects badly upon a Republican President. The MSM always treats those as a disenchanted GOP employee and never condider that they might just be a liberal hanging around from a Dem administration.
Don't be surprised if there is no detailed reporting of the job history of the perpertators as I assume most have been there longer then Bush.
Um, are we to assume these employees were Republicans?
September 11, 2008 - 05:42 ET by smartestmaninamericaI just don't get this. Where is the tie in to Bush? Is George Bush personally responsible for the actions of every single government employee?
What if we learn these employees were Democrats?
This is the reason why no one pays any attention to the MSM anymore.
Ahhh come on you cant see
September 11, 2008 - 08:17 ET by USA4freedomAhhh come on you cant see the connection??
They guys wear shirts, Bush wears shirts!!
The guys wear pants (sometime) Bush wears pants!!
Etc. etc..
On top of all of that they are all in Government!!
See how easy that was..
Ronald Reagan, 1962: I did not leave the Democratic party, the party left me.
Insert: your name, 2008, and the Republican party.
President Harry S Truman
September 11, 2008 - 09:50 ET by j. frank wilsonhad a plaque on his Oval Office desk that said "The Buck Stops Here."
The President - the "Decider" - is the CEO (President Bush is, after all, our first MBA President). He's responsible for the entire government - not just "political appointees" but Civil Servants as well.
This happend on President Bush's watch. He's the guy in charge. He appointed the Secretary of the Interior. Obviously something was rotten in Denver. A leader steps up and accepts responsibility when things go wrong. Go back and watch President John F. Kennedy's press conference immediately after the Bay of Pigs debacle. There is the classic example of how to accept responsibility for failure.
This is true “A leader
September 11, 2008 - 11:14 ET by Dan The Man 2This is true “A leader steps up and accepts responsibility when things go wrong” but to what extent. Do we go to feudal Japan to see how responsibility is handled where they commit seppuku? The President is not responsible for low level employees; he is responsible for those he appoints. Anything else is ludicrous. And are you comparing this to a disaster like the Bay of Pigs?
This is clearly a case of employees gone bad and they must be dealt with. It is not the failure of President Bush as you infer. The WOT now that President Bush has responsibility for but this oil scandal, no.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Dan the Man 2:
September 11, 2008 - 16:33 ET by j. frank wilsonPresident Bush gutted the Inspector General's office, staffing those positions with inexperienced political hacks. The Bush Admnistration fought any independent oversight of the war in Iraq. They have no interest in open government, or in outside review. This is the logical result of such efforts - corruption.
I happend to believe most government employees work hard to do a good job. I can remember when they were public servants, not bureaucrats. But every job needs supervision - this Administration has done everything it can to eliminate it.
And, yes, President Bush is responsible for the actions of every person and every office. He asked for the job - and that's certainly part of it.
Pompons
September 11, 2008 - 10:03 ET by Great DebaterI truly believe that before the election, Katie's going to break out her old high school pompons and start chanting "Let's go Dems, let's go Dems. Push 'em back, push 'em back, waaaaay back!"
If Obama does win, at least it will be nice to hear good national news once in a while.