CBS and Leslie Moonves Cowards and Hypocrites

CBS's recent decision to fire General John Batiste was appalling on numerous levels. Presumably, the venerable network hired Batiste as an expert in his field, a field in which he has few peers. By firing him, CBS deprived their viewers of expert knowledge and perspective, and was, in a word, irresponsible.

CBS Television President Les Moonves fired General Batiste for his comments in a recent commercial for VoteVets, comments which Mr. Moonves called"advocacy." Mr. Moonves is certainly correct, it is advocacy, but Mr. Moonves apparently believes in different standards for different people employed by his company.
§ Mandy Patinkin has long endorsed pharmaceuticals and has been an "advocate" for a group called "Americans For Peace Now" - yet Mr. Moonves has not seen fit to fire Mr. Patinkin -nor should he.
§ Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation wrote The Acting President, a book that argued in part that the Reagan administration created an environment "ripe for misadventure." Again, this is advocacy (i.e., making an argument, advocating a position), but nothing wrong with that apparently.

Moreover CBS News retains both Michael O'Hanlon and Nicholle Wallace as consultants, but apparently the same high "standards Mr. Moonves applied to General Batiste disappear when applied to those who suck at the teat of the the Bush administration. Mr. O'Hanlon penned an editorial for the Washington Post (among many) in which he advocated the troop surge proposed by President Bush's administration (this one specifically is Washington Post, January 14, 2007 http://http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201950.html). Ms. Wallace, a former Bush staffer consistently argues the administration's positions to the point that it seems sometimes that CBS news ought to be considered the press arm of the Bush White House. At one point in the lead up to the recent mid-term elections, Ms. Wallace stated on the CBS Evening News that Americans "really don't want to see Democrats in control of Congress" (CBS Evening News With Katie Couric, October 23, 2006, video at http://http://mediamatters.org/items/200610240005). Bad enough, but made worse by the revelation that Ms. Wallace is now an aide to Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) presidential campaign. Now THAT is advocacy - on one of their news programs!

To fire General Batiste is hypocritical and beneath the dignity of a news division that is the "heir" to Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. I can only imagine what Murrow would have thought of the treatment of General Batiste were he alive today, but it seems patently clear that he would not have been allowed to express those thoughts for fear of his termination (not that he would have given a damn).