CBS is starting a new online effort this month called “Public Eye,” in which former Hotline writer Vaughn Ververs will bring some transparency and self-evaluation to CBS News in the wake of the Rathergate fiasco. That sounds nice, and Ververs has seemed like a reasonable choice. AP asked me if this would help bridge the gap with conservatives. I said more transparency is nice, but the black mark of Rathergate will not be erased for a long time.

Now I have to regret being that charitable, since CBS has also hired for the blog one Brian Montopoli from Columbia Journalism Review, best known in our casa as the guy who wrote that “reasonable people” can’t take the “far right” MRC or Brent Bozell seriously, especially when compared to the “clear, transparent reasoning” and the “consistent useful resource” provided by the Clintonistas at Media Matters for America.