Last night's CBS broadcast was a disgrace. Gloria Borger aired pure McCarthyite smears as news without any opposing view:
GLORIA BORGER: Just a few hours after Kirk Fordham resigned as chief of staff to Tom Reynolds, the House Republican campaign chairman, Fordham told the Associated Press that he had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level. That means Hastert’s staff. Fordham was once a top aide to Mark Foley and is known to be gay. CBS News has learned that several other top Republican staffers who handled the Foley matter are also gay. Their role in this controversy has caused a firestorm among Republican conservatives who charge that a group of high-level gay Republican staffers were protecting a gay Republican congressman.
TONY PERKINS: Was the leadership afraid to stand up to that network out of fear of being labeled homophobic or gay bashing?
BORGER: Hastert’s office didn’t immediately respond to Fordham’s charges, saying it’s a matter for the ethics committee to handle. But Republicans won’t wait that long and they could still decide that Hastert has to go. Katie?
KATIE COURIC: Alright, thanks so much, Gloria.
JPod is right. There is a creeping McCarthyism to some of this. And CBS last night went right over the line. Let's hold all those accountable who can be shown to have knowingly acquiesced in the abuse of power that is at the heart of the Foley scandal. But generalizing madly on rumors, constructing connections where no proof of such exists, giving an unchallenged platform to bigots, and pandering to some of the worst aspects of human nature is inexcusable. It's inexcusable when it's done by right-wingers, and inexcusable when done by left-wingers like Couric and CBS.