Incoming CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley was asked by the Politico's Keach Hagey for his reaction to the MRC's Profile in Bias [1]on him and the longtime 60 Minutes correspondent, who once compared global warming skeptics to Holocaust deniers [2], seemed to deny the charge of liberal bias as he huffed: "CBS has been called liberal for a lot of years," adding, "It probably harkens all the way back to Edward Murrow."
The following is the relevant excerpt from the May 4, Politico.com [3] story:
Projecting fairness has been an issue for the network in some quarters. CBS News, under Couric, was a constant object of derision in the right-wing blogosphere. Though the anger focused on Couric's damaging interview of Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate, it spilled into all aspects of the broadcast.
Pelley also has his conservative critics and was welcomed to his new job by the Media Research Center rounding up his top "liberal" moments, including his apparent incredulousness while interviewing John McCain that McCain believed that Palin was qualified to be president.
But Pelley said this is nothing new. "CBS has been called liberal for a lot of years," he said. "It probably harkens all the way back to Edward Murrow."
- Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [4].