Today's Questions on Rathergate, PBS, and Being in the Code Pink Tank

A few random thoughts:

-- Did you notice no one asked President Bush at his press conference today about Dan Rather suing CBS? I wouldn’t argue that Bush should be asked to critique the liberal media in a routine press conference, but he WAS the target of Rather’s atrociously phony National Guard story.

Instead, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux was desperately attempting to fuse together the Jena 6 protests and the GOP candidates’ failure to accept debates in hostile liberal territory. Whenever race relations seep into the news, do reporters just have to jerk their knees like Kanye West and assume Republicans hate black people?

-- Boston PBS superstation WGBH clearly has too much money (too much electricity?) on its hands. Our Brent Baker asked: Is this helping to solve global warming?

-- Code Pink's protests on Capitol Hill on Monday drew only 130 people, by their count on their website. So why did the Washington Post assign them a publicist for a day of "Hall of Shame" pranks? No, I don't mean a "reporter." Read the article. I mean a publicist. I hope Paul Duggan wore pink, too. He's definitely in the Code Pink tank.

-- The WashPost's online chats can be interesting, especially when spicy Shailagh Murray is answering questions. You suspect they're more honest in their assessments than they can be on the printed page. On Monday, a questioner acted disgusted that Democrats would consider Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland as a potential veep, since he was allegedly a fan of the NRA, one of the "most conservative Democrats when he was a Congressman." Responded Murray: 

Shailagh Murray: You raise some good points. I'm just repeating what I'm hearing, which is that several campaigns already have taken notice of Strickland, and there's some buzz out there. I disagree with the idea that his conservative slant makes him less appealing. I think it makes him more appealing -- especially given how far left the candidates have had to lean on the war, and now health care.

I don't think the "far left" lingo would get past her editors in a news report.