CBS promotes fabricated controversy over White House health care emails
March 19, 2010 7:11 pm ET by Terry Krepel
Earlier this week, we highlighted a Newsmax column by Richard Grenell, in which he ranted that a health care reform plan to permit coverage of dependents on their parents' insurance up to age 26 means those youths will be "enticed to continue slacking, without a job, well past college graduation," adding that "ski bums everywhere are cheering the news."
Imagine our surprise to learn that within a week, Grenell -- "spokesman for the last four U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations: Zalmay Khalilzad, John Bolton, John Danforth and John Negroponte" -- had somehow graduated from Newsmax to CBS News.
Yes, CBSNews.com has published an "opinion" column by Grenell. He manages to avoid maligning slackers this time; rather, he accuses White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle of sending "annoying and partisan emails" to federal employees promoting health care reform. Grenell claims that some federal employees "feel threatened" by the emails and suggests there will be "retribution" if "the federal employee doesn't act in the way The White House is suggesting." Grenell goes on to ponder: "Has The White House requested that another federal agency monitor who is acting on behalf of Obama's health reform bill and who is not?"
Grenell's column is pure speculation -- he provides no evidence whatsoever that any retribution has or will taken place. He also doesn't provide any quotes -- even anonymous quotes -- from federal employees.
In fact, despite Grenell's claim that the emails are being sent "unsolicited" to federal employees, it appears they are sent out to everyone on the whitehouse.gov mailing list. Further, versions of them are also posted on the White House website. One email's request to "help raise awareness by sharing this email with your friends, family and online networks" is not specifically targeted at federal employees, as Grenell implies -- it's to everyone who got a copy. If Grenell was on the White House's email list, he would presumably have gotten the same message.
Grenell's complete lack of substance, of course, didn't keep Fox Nation from promoting his column at the top of its front page:
Who's Grenell's agent? We'd like to meet the guy who allowed Grenell to bust down the doors of CBS News with such empty speculation.
But you only call him out for his Newsmax & CBS work?
And, BTW, he used the same cover of "spokesman for the past 4 U.S. ambassdors to the U.N." to make him sound reasonable and not partisan, instead of saying something like: "Lackey for the past 4 right-wing U.N. haters under George Bush"
Well, I happen to see HuffPo print just as much conservative misinformation as CBS News and CNN, yet CNN & CBS News are not on MMFA's do-not-touch list.
Can you explain that?
That's first.
Secondly, if you have a problem with the way MMFA is doing their job, the way to CONTACT MMFA is NOT by posting in the reader blog as you did. If you REALLY want to talk to them, there are other ways, like the "contact us" link below.
I found 2 stories about Grenell. One from 5 days ago, and one from yesterday.
Typically, MMFA doesn't cover blogs unless they post really out there stuff - they mostly cover the MSM.
But if you think that they need to cover the Huffington Post, then tell MMFA that, not us. And if you've already been doing that, you need to provide US with prime examples of that, instead of the whine you posted above without ANY substance to back it up.
This is the SAME guy that Terry here slaughters for the SAME sorts of writings for CBS or Newsmax. Maybe if HuffPo were also criticized by MMFA, then CBS would have seen that he is a sham.
Naturally, you could do this work today, but I did it for you since I have the free time. Isn't that nice of me?
Also, HuffPo is not a blog site ...
YOU'RE the one who makes the claim, yet I am supposed to do the work to verify that your claim actually holds water?
YOU'RE the one who KNOWS which stories you think that MMFA should have covered and didn't, yet somehow I am supposed to know, like a psychic, which stories you think that MMFA missed?
You need to get a clue here. You're being a jerk about this.
And you TOTALLY failed to prove your case, too. Providing a link to some stories that Grenell wrote doesn't do it. Saying that there was conservative misinformation IN those stories REQUIRES that you point out WHAT you think MMFA should have highlighted in those stories. All you did was provide a link to ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that's linked to this guy!
Massive FAIL.
MMFA doesn't attack PEOPLE.
They attack behavior. Behavior that exhibits conservative misinformation in the media that furthers the conservative agenda. You have missed, terribly, in providing evidence of that.
And AGAIN, the evidence needs to be provided to MMFA, not those of us who post here.
What you need to provide to US is evidence that you've provided that EVIDENCE to MMFA and that they failed to act upon it. To do that, you have to show us SPECIFICS of what they have missed.
I don't understand how you don't understand this. It's not rocket science.
The link I provided from HuffPo shows that Grennel has being doing this exact same kind of thing and hiding behind the label of "spokesperson for the past 4 UN ambassador" crap with HuffPo for quite some time now.
But it is not until he is published by CBS that MMFA jumps into action.
BTW, the reason you need to do the work is because I am right and you are not at all proving me wrong.
Have you read HuffPo lately? They print pieces by the likes of Grenell and Tony Blankley but MMFA is hands-off because they fall into a "liberal" category?
They DO cover MSM mostly, and cover big and little offensives from them, and then they also cover the most obnoxious of the rightwing blogs when they are really obnoxious.
But again, if you have a problem with the process by which MMFA choses what media resources to cover and why, you need to address those concerns to MMFA staff, NOT US.
I don't support the Huffington Post. I've tried it multiple times, didn't like it, and voted with my feet as they say. So I'm not saying any of this because I think that the Huffington Post should be immune from examination by MMFA or that they don't have serious flaws, because they clearly do.
A few who I worked with and called my friends traveled to Montana where there was a regular industry cranking out fake documents to work.
If you want to promote American workers taking jobs in industries like hospitality where the benefits suck, maybe staying on Mom and Dad's insurance will help.