The hits just keep on coming…
The New York Observer’s Joe Hagan has details on another situation that will surely not make CBS News look good in the public eye. This time around, Hagan reports, the network was found to have been using a “rogue soldier,” Jonathan Idema, to provide them with stories from deep inside Afghanistan. But that’s not the problem - it seems that Idema was arrested last July for operating a private jail - which CBS employees reportedly knew about but continued to use him as an “on the ground” operative for some time before his arrest. The network claims that they had no prior knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Idema’s actions, however.
Even if CBS employees weren’t involved in the videotaping or situation in Afghanistan, this story does one important thing - adds to a particular pattern of behavior. Since we live in a time when the term “vetted” is now part of the public’s lexicon, and not just that of speechwriters and journalist-types, I suppose it would be fair to point out that this just adds to the criticism of the network overall. They are either doing a very poor job of checking backgrounds on their sources, or they are running with material they know might be sketchy, in order to keep up with the Joneses - i.e. the rest of the news organizations. And while the latter is probably not the case, it shouldn’t be left out of the realm of possibilities - the network’s ratings haven’t exactly been stellar over the last few years, including a 10% drop since this time in 2003, the Chicago Tribune’s John Cook writes.
And to continue the thread, check out this item at RatherBiased.com, with more details about the goings on at CBS and parent company Viacom.
