ThinkProgress talked to CBS, RE: General Batiste

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/11/cbs-fires-batiste/

CBS Fires Batiste For Anti-Bush Advocacy, Hires Bush Aide To Engage In Pro-Bush Advocacy

In a recent VoteVets ad, Gen. John Batiste says, “I left the Army in protest in order to speak out.” Now, CBS has punished him for speaking out. Last night, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reported, “General John Batiste loses his CBS job after appearing in an advertisement critical of the president.”

CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius spoke to ThinkProgress this morning and confirmed that Batiste’s consulting contract has been canceled due to his participation in the VoteVets ad. Genelius said Batiste “inadvertently violated our standards” and therefore “we and the General mutually agreed to end his consultants’ arrangement with CBS News.”

When asked what standards Batiste violated, Genelius said he participated in “advocacy,” but noted that she had not seen the ad to verify the charge. Batiste’s only “advocacy” in the ad might be found in this statement: “Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.” Watch the ad at link~

While CBS claims it will not tolerate consultants engaging in outside advocacy, it apparently has no problem paying a former White House communications director to engage in the Bush administration’s advocacy on air. While being billed as CBS News’ “political consultant,” Nicolle Wallace has propagated talking points advanced by her old colleagues in the White House communications office. Some examples:

“The Democrats have to walk a fine line and be careful. People don’t want to turn on the TV and see every story being about the obstruction of people trying to do things.”

“Well, you know, people ask me all the time, ‘Do they get it? Do they get how bad things are?’ And the answer is yes.”

At the end of the day, no matter how discontent some voters are, they really don’t want to see Democrats in control of the Congress.

It’s apparently only advocacy when you’re opposing Bush. Americans United notes that it took two weeks for CBS to fire Don Imus for racial slurs, but two days to fire Batiste for speaking up on Iraq.

You can send a message to CBS here: (and I encourage you to do so!)

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml

[Monkeyman]

1. K&R

[mod mom]

2. done. thanks for posting.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I sent them a little 'love' note.

[Lebam in LA]

4. Done ( a couple of times)

I've sent them several lil "love notes" today, one suggesting that Dana Perino might be a perfect replacement since we all now know what they are really all about. :puke:

[Stinky The Clown]

5. I probably had mine sent to the nut file .... cuz I went into a rant.

"So let me understand this. You fired MGen John Batiste for 'advocacy' because he advocated for the troops and for the United States? Is that right?

You people are simply pathetic. You hire the horrible Couric as the successor to Walter Cronkite yet you fire Dan Rather due to right wing pressure based not on any facts? You fire his producer for little more.

Yet there's Nicole Devonish/Wallace spewing Karl Rove talking points and that's just dandy?

Can you even *be* any more transparent?"

[loudsue]

10. H2S....I thought your letter was quite good!

You said what needed to be said!

:applause:

:kick:

[Uncle Joe]

6. Just more Mass Corporate Media hypocrisy.

By the way does anyone out there still believe in that "liberal media" myth bullshit?

Thanks for the thread babylonsister

Kicked and recommended

[ourbluenation]

7. Kick

:kick:

[Adelante]

8. Here is a list to write to or call

CBS Television
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
http://www.cbs.com/ (you have to click feedback at the bottom of the page)

Main Number:
[phone]
—-
CBS News
555 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Main Number:
[phone]
—-

Sponsers:
Prevacid
1-866-4-PREVACID
TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc.
675 North Field Drive
Lake Forest, IL 60045

Lincoln Motors
800 521-4140
16800 Executive Plaza Dr.
P.O. Box 6248
Dearborn, MI 48126
Web feedback form

Swiffer by Proctor & Gamble
Swiffer Brand Manager
1 Procter & Gamble Plaza
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Web feedback form

One Touch Ultra
800 227-8862
[e-mail]

Plavix by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi~Synthelabo
1-877-2-PLAVIX
Web feedback form

Cheerios by General Mills
1-800-328-1144
General Mills, Box 200
Minneapolis, MN 55440
Web feedback form

Centrum Silver by Wyeth
Caltrate by Wyeth
1-888-797-5638
5 Giralda Farms
Madison, New Jersey 07940
Web feedback form

Philip Morris USA
1-800-343-0975, prompt 4
Philip Morris USA, Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 26603
Richmond
Virginia 23261
Web feedback form

Men’s Wearhouse
1-800-851-6744
40650 Encyclopedia Circle
Fremont, CA 94538
Web feedback form

Mazda Protégé
Mazda North American Operations
P.O. Box 19734
Irvine, CA 92623-9734
Web feedback form

Big Lots
614- 278-6800
Big Lots, Inc.
300 Phillipi Road
Columbus, Ohio 43228-5311

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Gack! Plavix .......

..... my doc says I'll be taking that for the rest of my life.

[kiteinthewind]

13. Bingo! We need to do a campaign to contact the Sponsors! That is how it is going to get their

attention-$$$
Let's get busy (first thing Monday morning!) :applause:
Thanks, WesDem!!

Rec. and Bookmarked!

[abburdlen]

14. Executive Email Carpet Bomb.

just ran across http://consumerist.com/consumer/complaint-letters/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb-259713.php">this and thought well wouldn't that be useful....
Could be a busy weekend writing letters.

[AtomicKitten]

9. cowards

Choosing to perpetuate that meme that war is patriotic and failing yet again to do the hard work of vetting the truth -
not now, now when it mattered before this national disgrace and nightmare began.

[Canuckistanian]

11. CBS VP On Batiste: ‘The Viewer Might Have The Feeling Everything He Says Is Anti-Bush’

Well, duh.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/11/batiste-cbs-update/

[illinoisprogressive]

15. did it. told them people are going to blogs because of the conservative media bias.

[Donna Zen]

16. What network are we talking about?

We spend huge amounts of time slamming fox. They've earned our scorn so our rejection of that network is right and just. Whenever the subject of the insane fox network pops up some good soul points out that the other networks are not to be trusted either. Which brings us to CBS and General Batiste.

fox, a network so blatantly partisan that even their devotes identify them as right-wing news, doesn't carry the same weight with average voters as does CBS. And yet, even the crooks at fox haven't behaved in this way. General Clark has done ads for VoteVets; he sits on their board, and according to them, recruited Batiste and Eaton. Even fox hasn't canceled Wes Clark because of his politics. This doesn't make fox good, but it does tell us much about the state of the MSM in America. Rotten.

Caring about our country and our troops is not acceptable to the media today.

Faux will undoubtedly perform a new deed so outrageous that it will merit an angry thread; in fact, given their track record, it will probably happen today; however, hold this thought: all of the networks have let us down because they are all flunkies for their corporate masters. Handle with caution.

[elizm]

17. Did it yesterday! :) n/t