Reason #438,517 that the MSM is becoming a joke

What can you expect when the media watchdogs lie?

I ran across this at CJR Daily:

Duke v. Iraq, an Exercise in News Judgment

I thought the writer had a fair point about the attention paid to the exoneration of the lax players compared to the extension of the tours of duty in Iraq. I might have quibbled on some points, but it is an honest argument. (One I made here about Iraq versus the Natalie Holloway story.)

Sadly, the writer did not present his case in an honest manner. Far from it. He blatantly distorted quotes and changed their meaning.

This is from the CJR piece:

Friend and former colleague Brian Montopoli noted as much on Friday on CBS' the Public Eye, pointing to the comments of Gregory Papadatos, an Army medic and Iraq vet who feels much the same way: "Somebody please tell me why that one incident, which caused no bleeding or dying, is getting more radio air time than the fact that [a medic friend of his] -- along with about 100,000 of her closest friends and colleagues -- has just been told she has to spend three extra months in a combat zone."

If you click over to CBS News you can read all of what the Iraq vet wrote:

Now, keeping all of this in mind, somebody please tell me why a deejay with a reputation for irreverence calling a basketball player a "nappy-headed ho" should leave that woman "scarred for life" (which is a direct quote from one of the Rutgers basketball players, in Wednesday's newspapers). After that, somebody please tell me why I should care about it. And THEN somebody please tell me why that one incident, which caused no bleeding or dying, is getting more radio air time than the fact that MY little buddy - along with about 100,000 of her closest friends and colleagues - has just been told she has to spend three extra months in a combat zone.

No mention of the Duke lacrosse case. The soldier was referencing the attention paid to the Imus imbroglio.

Why did McLeary do this? If he really cared about the extension of the combat tours, the point is still made without butchering and twisting the quote.

Maybe he just does not like lacrosse players.

The bigger question is why CJR Daily ran such a dishonest piece. It does not look good when the official organ of high-minded journalism puts its imprimatur on something this bad.