Saturday, February 02, 2013

Steve Capus leaves NBC

Now I doubt that Steve Capus, newly-resigned President of NBC News, was directly responsible for the obvious instances of journalistic malpractice and editorial fraud that occurred under his watch. I'm sure he didn't personally tell the people who actually carried them out to do so.

At best, however, he is guilty of fostering a culture and environment where such acts were considered acceptable, if not encouraged. At worst, he's guilty of specifically instructing his staff to engage in such actions, though this obviously can't be proven. At the very least he should have taken steps to put a stop to it after the first one or two incidents, but he clearly did not.

In any event, he's out. I'd like to believe it's because of these incidents, though there are certainly other possible reasons. Regardless, they happened on his watch, and he's ultimately responsible for them. Here is the list from the Breitbart article linked above:
1. During last year's presidential election, Andrea Mitchell was caught manufacturing a Romney gaffe where none existed.
2. During last year's GOP primary, Ed Schultz edited video of Texas Governor Rick Perry to make him look racist.
3. In April of last year, the "Today Show" was caught editing audio of a 9-1-1 call to make George Zimmerman look racist.
4. In August of 2009, Contessa Brewer sliced and diced a photograph so it wouldn't look like a black man attended a Tea Party carrying a firearm.  
5. Just this week, NBC News maliciously edited video of a town council meeting to make it look as though Second Amendment civil rights activists heckled a parent who lost his son in Newtown.
There is simply no excuse. He had to go.

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