Newsweek Editor: 'The Narrative was Right, But The Facts Were Wrong'

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As Andrew Klavan writes today, “The mainstream media’s coverage of stories that don’t fit the Narrative is less coverage than coverage-up:”

It’s a version of the “fake but accurate” argument that some used to defend Dan Rather’s flogging of forged documents in his attempt to slime President George W. Bush’s National Guard service. It’s the argument Newsweek‘s then assistant managing editor Evan Thomas made after the magazine essentially condemned Duke lacrosse players for a racist rape they did not commit: “The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.”

In other words, in left-wing media world, if the facts don’t fit what you “know” to be true — i.e. if they don’t confirm your imagination — you have a right to make stuff up that does.

Or keep stuff silent, more to the point. Because most of the narrative-confirming lies told by the networks and the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and other like-minded mokes are lies of omission. The “Fast and Furious” scandal, for instance.  The nation’s chief law enforcement officer perjured himself before Congress and was then protected from investigation by an indefensible presidential invocation of executive privilege — but it was no big deal to the networks. The Benghazi killings barely existed in the New York Times when the news might have had an adverse effect on Barack Obama’s election campaign. And the story is still being downplayed to the point that the president feels he can plausibly tell the public he’s “unaware” of what’s going on.

The mainstream media’s coverage of stories that don’t fit the Narrative is less coverage than coverage-up.

Which brings me finally to the Kermit Gosnell trial.  An abortionist is accused of slaughtering live babies (the jury is deliberating as I write). As with the Newtown massacre, it’s an appalling atrocity that highlights issues on which American opinion is sharply divided. Which is to say, it’s news. There’s simply no way it’s not big, national news. But take a look at the video up top from comedian Steven Crowder. People don’t know about Gosnell because the mainstream media have gone out of their way not to tell them. And no matter what excuse they make, the truth is editors and producers have hidden the story from America’s eyes for fear of its implications.  They’re afraid it might dawn on people that there is essentially no difference between the murders this man is accused of and the “procedures” performed by Planned Parenthood every single hour of every single day.

Read the whole thing, watch the video by Steven Crowder, and then check out the quote discovered by Kathy Shaidle:

“What is a ‘hit piece’ exactly? I learned the term in journalism school at Northwestern.”

It’s hard to tell from the context of the quote, but is the writing of “hit pieces” actually taught in journalism school? If so, I’d like to hear more about that.