60 Minutes Takedown!

Last Sunday, the 60 Minutes show broadcast a segment that made a case for a Republican conspiracy (conspicuously led by Karl Rove) to falsely accuse and convict Alabama governor Don Siegelman of mail fraud and bribery. The network's case was almost entirely based on a story told by one Jill Simpson, an otherwise unremarkable lawyer from Alabama. I did not see this segment (I rarely watch television at all), but I'm nonetheless very familiar with it because of the uproar it created in the press and blogosphere.

The reason for the uproar is a simple and all-too-familiar one: it didn't look like their was much basis for the allegation, and the timing (during a Presidential campaign season) made it look like a hit piece. The suspicion is that the 60 Minutes show has an agenda, and that agenda includes knocking Republicans at every opportunity. Remember “RatherGate”? This looks like more of the same.

Amongst the many bloggers who successfully debunked the story behind RatherGate was John Hinderaker (of the PowerLine blog). His debunking stood out for its clarity, completeness, and persuasiveness. Now he's done it again, for the segment broadcast last Sunday. Here's his conclusion, but don't miss the whole thing (you just wouldn't want to miss seeing a competent journalist do the job that the lamestream media just can't seem to do):

... Jill Simpson is a sad case, but she's not the only one. The world is full of mildly deranged people who are convinced that they alone have stumbled onto the great conspiracy of their time, or that they themselves have played a key role in events, unaccountably unacknowledged by anyone else. There once was a time when journalists tried, at least, to avoid being led down blind alleys by such sad cases.

What is surprising is not that Jill Simpson exists, but that CBS chose to put her forward on 60 Minutes as a credible witness, without disclosing the many facts that would have enabled the network's viewers to draw their own conclusions about Simpson's story. It seems fair to wonder whether, at some level, the people who run CBS and 60 Minutes are as deranged as Jill Simpson when it comes to Karl Rove and the Republican Party.

If I were an executive at CBS (the studio that produces 60 Minutes), and I read the entirety of John Hinderaker's takedown, I'd be looking for new “talent” at 60 Minutes. And I'd be wondering if I could possibly entice John Hinderaker out of his legal career into a position where he could better inform the public, and help restore the credibility of a show whose tarnish now outweighs its substance...