Sorry, I missed the scintillating CNN debate last night, but I was on the job. Colleagues who have voted me Most Likely to Tolerate Public Broadcasting handed me the N.Y. Times review of the PBS “Frontline” documentary airing last night, titled “Truth, War, and Consquences.” They insisted I forego baseball and watch it. Compared to some of the uber-biased Bill Moyers screeds and “October Surprise” mythology this odious series has put forward, last night’s show was a festival of balance. Lots of chat from Richard Perle and Iraqi exile Kanan Makiya. But they were not the point.
Alessandra Stanley of the Times grasped the point: PBS “does not provide new information so much as it richly illustrates the case against the Bush administration — a prosecution brief enhanced with charts, photographs, and a thick leather binder.” In short, the taxpayer dollars of the Bush half of the electorate are being transferred to make the campaign arguments of the Gore half.
And don’t listen to anyone who tries to claim that “Frontline” only watchdogs whoever’s in the White House. Their biggest concern in the first Clinton term was a documentary on how Clinton had failed his liberal promise.