Gloria Borger, a sharp political reporter, has joined CBS News and is making the transition from print (and TV talk shows like Washington Week) to reporting for network TV. So she cannot be held totally responsible, I think, for the awful story she did on tonight's CBS Evening News. But awful it was.
Borger reported on a Washington dinner in support of Tom DeLay, telling us it was a sign that he would fight hard to survive his troubles. Fine.
The piece featured a rousing defense of DeLay, however, by lobbyist Bob Livingston. That Bob Livingston? Yes, the former Republican House member from Louisiana who quit under fire when it was revealed he was an adulterer. I'm not urging that Borger lead the story, "Adulterer defends DeLay," but viewers deserved to know he had his own ethical problems.
Borger's story also included a soundbite in which DeLay took credit for, among other things, balancing the budget. I kid you not. That fantasy was broadcast in all its virginal purity; no context and no correction.
Those are details. Here's what's more important - Borger used the word "conservative" more than once to describe the assembled forces. I don't doubt there were some conservatives in the room, but she would have done better to say "DeLay supporters." For if the issue was DeLay's "conservative" political positions, there would be no need for the dinner; he's under the gun because there's evidence suggesting he's a slime - he's twice been slapped on his wrist on ethics issues by fellow Republicans, remember - or a criminal.
Which brings us to the real failure - what the story didn't say. DeLay and his friends put on this dinner to change the subject, to move the focus from ethics and possible criminality to ideology and politics. (Smart politics, I give them that.)
Borger never got close to that fair and accurate evaluation, thereby missing an
opportunity to educate the electorate.