CBS Public Eye blogger Vaughn Ververs responded to the Media Research Center’s criticism that a CBS News report employed “sarcastic” language in a news report about Bush’s recent visits to New Orleans. Here’s the MRC:

CBS on Tuesday night delivered a sarcastic look at President Bush’s visit to the Gulf coast. After reciting a list of problems people are having in New Orleans, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi jumped to a soundbite of Bush in Mississippi, declaring: “Every time I come back here, I see progress.”Alfonsi gratuitously pointed out that Bush was “speaking inside an air-conditioned tent” and noted how “he toured a Folgers plant in Louisiana” but, she stressed, “small business owners say this kind of progress is the exception.”
Then, over video of a row of damaged and abandoned store fronts in New Orleans, she countered: “This is the reality.”

Ververs asked CBS News executive producer Jim Murphy to respond. Unlike CBSNews.com editor Michael Sims, who delivered a reasonable and adequate response to a concern I had last week, Murphy delivered a defensive, angry tirade:

Please explain to me what’s WRONG with pointing out the President spoke from an air-conditioned tent, which to most people on the gulf would be a more than welcome relief from their existence. It was not gratuitous, it was an interesting note.
And Sharyn’s use of the well-known phrase, “wake up and smell the coffee,” was attributed to the restaurant owners as THEIR feeling, NOT hers. It’s just good, colorful, pointed writing.
My problem with many of the MRC’s complaints is that it regularly exaggerates the impact of whatever it disagrees with. If a President Clinton or a President Carter were in the exact same situation as this President, the MRC wouldn’t peep about this script. It is a much more biased organization than any institution in the MSM.

When has the MRC ever claimed to be unbiased?

Ververs added a few thoughts of his own:

In this case, [the MRC has] a small, but overblown, point to make in my view (which, of course, is also subjective). Television is about more than words, it