If CBS can be blamed for mere competitive zeal, what was “60 Minutes Wednesday” up against in the ratings battle on September 8, 2004?

ABC: a special, “Are You Ready? NFL 2004″

NBC: the dud drama “Hawaii”

Fox: “That ’70s Show”/”Quintuplets”

UPN: “Amish in the City”

WB: “Smallville”

The better battle might have been against ABC a little later. At 10 Eastern that night, ABC ran a “Peter Jennings Reporting” special that sounded like it should have run in the Clinton years, exposing “high-profile health advocates who have turned their backs on anti-smoking campaigns, and the failure of the states to sustain the fight against smoking.” (I only mention the Clinton era because Clinton fought tobacco much harder in public than terrorism.) That would have been liberal bias vs. liberal bias.