More media headline lies, in search of a scandal

Headline for ABC News blog, "The Blotter", by Justin Rood?

Exclusive: Report Charges Broad White House Efforts to Stifle Climate Research

Lead paragraph?

Bush administration officials throughout the government have engaged in White House-directed efforts to stifle, delay or dampen the release of climate change research that casts the White House or its policies in a bad light, says a new report that purports to be the most comprehensive assessment to date of the subject.

Doesn't leave much room for debate, does it? "Bush administration officials... HAVE ENGAGED...".

Let's jump down twelve paragraphs, shall we? Rood's paraphrasing of words from the subject report's author...

Tarek Maassarani, the report's author, cautioned that he did not see evidence of a single coordinated White House effort to block credible climate research. Instead, he believed officials acted only when a piece of research or particular issue showed up on their political radar. "They're reacting to situations most of the time," Maassarani told ABC News.

I repeat... "DID NOT SEE EVIDENCE OF A SINGLE COORDINATED WH EFFORT....". That's sure different than the lead paragraph's stat that Bush officials "have engaged" in efforts to stifle free speech.

Media... feh.

Then again, Rood feeds off scandal and corruption. In the past year, he's been writing for Mudraker.com. A quick read thru the subject matter and presentation reveals this blog group doesn't work hard to conceal their liberal bias. And that's a dangerous, unbalanced combination for a blog devoted strictly to scandal and corruption... even the concocted kind.

But how about his work ethics? His sources for info? From the CBS news story on him Jan 5th, 2007 (linked above), Rood talks about his blog life...

We've never tried to calculate the number of e-mails we get from readers each day, but it's in the hundreds. Some are screeds, of course, but most are thoughtful.

Some e-mailers are of a kind with my old inside-the-beltway sources -- lobbyists, Hill staffers, government officials, high-priced lawyers. (Mata note: no agenda from that group, eh?) Many aren't. They're history professors, investment bankers, housewives and graduate students from all over the country.

What do they send us? The inside-the-beltway types send us good documents, gossip, informed prognostication. The outside-the-beltway types send curious articles from their local paper; a really good question based on the 18th paragraph of a New York Times piece that contradicts another article months earlier I'd never read; a sharp insight. It's like Christmas on the half-hour.

But reporting for a blog has its sacrifices. I don't get out to meet sources as much as I used to.

Also, the immediate feed-the-beast demands of writing for a blog are more stringent than those for covering a daily beat, and giving up an hour in the middle of the day to meet a source is often too great a luxury.

I'm also kept at my desk by the knowledge that the tips we get can be timely enough that an hour's delay will lose us the story.

Evidently researching and listening to a report's author, clarifying the report, also falls between the cracks. Piss poor performance for a scandal mudraker. And with malignant intent. This is not honest journalism. And Mr. Rood belongs in a Hollywood screenplay pool, not DC.