January 8, 2011
Timely Embargo Coverage of MA District Four Race by MA PBS
In July, 2009, the dining room table told three college-aged PBS interviewers that
I’m tired, and I think . . . it’d be nice to have some free time, not have to read a lot of stuff I don’t care about.
One would have thought that the easy solution was for Congressman Frank to simply not pull the nomination papers which would once again place him in a job which simultaneously bores and exhausts him.
More troubling than the unfathomable thinking process of the congressman who facilitated the housing and mortgage collapse, however, is the spectacle of a news outlet whose conduct ranges somewhere between gross negligence and the active shielding of a candidate from his own words.
The Boston Herald reports that PBS aired the WGBH “Roadtrip Nation” episode containing this very frank interview just two days ago.
Two days ago. A year and a half after it took place and, more to the point, very comfortably past the point that this information could have been of use to Mass District Four voters mulling over their options for the House of Representatives. It is difficult not to conclude that the public (what does the first letter in PBS stand for again ...?) has been poorly served by a news outlet which failed to release in a timely fashion a revealing and pertinent insight into a candidate - an incumbent candidate at that - for United States Congress.
What's so sad Monique is that none of us are surprised by the liberal media's self editing for political purpose. The ProJo does it all the time.
Look at their non-coverage of Mike Trainor, non-coverage of Chafee's tax cheating ways, etc. prior to the election. It's crystal clear the ProJo news pages are signed,sealed and delivered to Chafee.
... preceded by their non-coverage of David Cicilline, Tim.
Unfortunately, no lack of precedents, state or national, for such non-coverage - all of them a real disservice to the public and a betrayal of the press' vital role as watchdog.