He Who Leans Forward Controls the Past, to paraphrase George Orwell. At the Corner, Ian Tuttle writes:
Well, you learn something new every day, as they say. Today’s lesson? Governor George Wallace, the segregationist who served three nonconsecutive terms as Alabama’s chief executive, was a Republican.
At least, so says MSNBC. Noting the 50-year anniversary of Wallace’s infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door,” in which the governor physically blocked two black students from entering the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes showed a photo of Wallace — identifiying him as “(R) Alabama.”
At Newsbusters, Jeffrey Meyer adds:
The lack of journalistic integrity from the folks at NBC News has reached a new low for their sister network MSNBC. On Tuesday June 11, All In w/ Chris Hayes featured an on-screen graphic labeling arch-segregationist Governor George Wallace (D-Ala.) as a Republican. Alerted to the error via Twitter, Hayes apologized this morning.
In a segment marking the 50th anniversary of Governor Wallace personally attempting to block two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama, host Chris Hayes showed 50-year-old video of Wallace opposing integration, his name appearing onscreen tagged with (R) denoting him as a Republican. Hayes’ analysis of Wallace was correct, labeling him “obviously the villain in this story” but the sloppiness at the “Lean Forward” network minimizes his important point by falsely allowing his already liberal audience to believe Gov. Wallace was a Republican, when in fact he was a Democrat.
Meyers notes that Hayes apologized on Twitter afterwards:
This was a stupid, inexcusable, historically illiterate mistake. I should have caught it and apologize for failing to.
Well the sheer number of mistakes NBC has made over the past five years or so makes quality control quite a challenge. In addition to the issues with its on-air “talent,” NBC/MSNBC has had a series of disasters involving its backroom personnel over the past year; here’s a partial run-down of them, including this list from John Nolte of Big Journalism back in January:
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.
And just today, NBC was caught in yet another malicious edit, this time to make Second Amendment advocates look as though they did something as heinous as heckling the heartsick father of a child who lost his six-year-old son in the Sandy Hook massacre. You can watch the full video and NBC’s science fiction adaptation side-by-side here.
All of this has happened under the watch of Steve Capus (pictured above), who’s not only the president of NBC News, but also the “the arbiter of issues involving ethics, style, standards, safety and other matters that affect the Division’s journalistic bearing.”
Capus has since left the network, but the taint of his era lingers on at NBC.
Incidentally, just wait ’til Hayes discovers the KKK and their ties to Woodrow Wilson.
Oh wait, MSNBC flucked that chicken already last year.
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