Okay, guess who wants to see retired General John Batiste -- who was fired by CBS as a news consultant for bashing Bush and the war in that VoteVets ad -- put back on air by the network?
Another of CBS' own most high-profile news consultants: Michael O'Hanlon.
This, despite the fact that O'Hanlon also happens to be a proponent of the surge. I just spoke to O'Hanlon, and he told me that he wants to see Batiste back on CBS because he views him as a "legitimate actor in the debate."
O'Hanlon, who's also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has appeared on CBS dozens of times over the years. Though he openly backed the surge (with the caveat that he's skeptical that it will work), he wasn't disqualified as a CBS consultant by his high-profile support for the policy. CBS justified giving Batiste the ax by saying that Batiste's "advocacy" against the war disqualified him in the eyes of the network. CBS has since offered shifting justifications for the firing, as Think Progress has shown.
"I would be personally gratified to see Batiste back on CBS," O'Hanlon told me. "I find his opinions to be quite strong, but the approach he's taken is a legitimate one. I find him a legitimate actor in the debate."
O'Hanlon stopped short of directly criticizing CBS and noted that he didn't think CBS -- a news network that traffics less in strong opinions than, say, talk shows do -- was necessarily obliged to give Batiste a platform. But O'Hanlon did stress that he didn't think Batiste's views should disqualify him from the airwaves, adding that Batiste's views "should be part of the broader public debate."
Unclear why CBS has trouble with that concept. Is there anyone out there who agrees with CBS on this one? That's a real question, by the way.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/05/another_cbs_new_1.php
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