In a serious indicator of approaching liberal bias on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Howard Kurtz noted yesterday:
The revamped program has just hired its own historian, author Douglas Brinkley, and has taped outside contributors delivering 20 possible commentaries for its new "Free Speech" segment (including a couple by Washington Post op-ed columnist Eugene Robinson).
What? Douglas Brinkley? The guy who wrote a book defending the "unfinished presidency" of Jimmy Carter? The guy who made excuses for Clinton's presidency in the midst of impeachment? The guy who wrote "Tour of Duty," a syrupy biography of John Kerry in Vietnam for the 2004 campaign? It came up again in today’s online Kurtz chat:
Springfield, Va.: Point of information, sir: you mentioned in yesterday's article on CBS that they had hired Douglas Brinkley as a sort of staff historian. I can't find that info anywhere else. Do you have any more details? And does the fact that Brinkley was John Kerry's sympathetic biographer in 2004 do anything to CBS's image vis a vis fair and balanced?
Howard Kurtz: You can't find that information anywhere because it is what we in the trade call an exclusive. As for your second question, it will depend on what Brinkley does on the broadcast and whether he seems to have a strong political point of view.
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