Sunburned, Overweight Florida Tourist Still In Denial

9:13 pm, 11/10/05

Sunburned, Overweight Florida Tourist Still In Denial
New CBS News president Sean McManus doesn't think CBS News is biased.

At a Tuesday meeting with CBS News staff, new CBS News President Sean McManus asserted that the people of CBS News "do a darned good job at" shutting out their political opinions and so "I don't see" any liberal bias in CBS News coverage. Vaughn Ververs recounted in a Tuesday evening posting for the "Public Eye" blog on CBSNews,com: "Asked if he feels the need to address perceptions that CBS has a left-wing bias, McManus said no, adding, 'it's very difficult for any reporter or producer to completely and totally shut out his political opinions, but what I've seen at CBS News, people do a darned good job at doing that. I guess if I saw that creeping into our coverage I would have to address it, but I don't see that in our coverage, I think we have been falsely accused of that at times.'"

Apparently, McManus missed CBS News' hilarious Election Night 2004 coverage, as an increasingly deranged Dan Rather insisted that Ohio wasn't lost, that what mattered was "the strongest image of who won", credited himself for holding up the official election results ("You feel it, you can feel it, you can almost touch it, you're right there, then some overpaid television anchor can come up and say 'You know what? This state may not be going your way after all'.") and accused Ed Bradley of "agreeing with Karl Rove" when he dared to suggest that the numbers showed Kerry had inevitably lost, arguing that "if a chicken has wings, that doesn't mean it can fly" while Bradley actually put his hand over his face, ashamed to be a part of this.

Meanwhile, Mary Mapes has published her book, "I Used To Work In TV" and, well, hey, she's not bitter.

The Freepers and their lockstep like-minded fellow travelers moved as a group, like a school of sharks sweeping toward an unaware and unarmed victim.

CBS was like some sunburned, overweight Florida tourist with a cut foot, floundering and flapping in the water alone in the surf.

The Freepers swarmed CBS not because it was right or fair but because they could.

On Web sites such as Powerline, INDC Journal, Allahpundit, and Spacetownusa, the bravehearts of the blogging world worked anonymously in what appeared to be huge numbers, in unison, to destroy the Bush-Guard story, to uphold one another's wild and hateful claims, to outshout, outargue, and outblog anyone who dared to disagree.

And on their Web sites there is no disagreement. They hate in unison, they speak with one angry voice, they each make themselves bigger by staying as close together as possible.

Tim Blair refutes her insanity:

The woman's delusions are extraordinary; CBS is able to "swarm" practically every household in the US, but websites find obvious fault with a story and suddenly CBS is some kind of Dickensian orphan boy brutalised by Big Media tyrants posting one-liners from their PCs. Get a grip, Mapes!...as INDC Journal points out: "Neither Powerline, nor Spacetown, nor INDC Journal worked anonymously during the scandal."

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