What would be worse: if Norah actually believes it--or if she doesn't?
Norah O'Donnell has claimed that the Washington Post and the New York Times provide straight-up information, without bias, of the sort that would be appealing to members of the putatively non-partisan "No Labels" group.
Norah's mind-boggling assertion came on today's Morning Joe during a discussion of AOL's acquisition of HuffPo for $315 million. Reacting to indications that Arianna Huffington may be guiding her creation toward the center and away from its leftist roots, WaPo's Jonathan Capehart argued the move made sense on the theory that people such as those at No Labels are hungry for straight-up reporting. That's when Norah broke in to claim that such unbiased reporting is already being provided by, yup, WaPo and the Times.
View video after the jump.
Let's try to imagine the MSM sea in which Norah swims, where two newspapers of the left look right down the center to her.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: She [Huffington] has been bought or merged or whatever it is with AOL. She's got a much bigger audience, a much bigger platform. And as we know, if you want to get people to your site, buy your product, buy what you have to offer, you can't be in the extremes. And I'm not saying Huffington Post is in the extremes--please, don't blow up my Twitter or my FaceBook. But just, she's going to have to broaden a bit.
PAT BUCHANAN: Jonathan, look, whatever credential she got or money she got is because she ran a left-wing website, anti-conservative, beating up on them. And it seems to me in the media today the folks who are clearly defined, no pale pastels, are the ones doing well. And if she moves now if you will into sort of the mushy center, is there really that much of an audience on the web for that? don't people go to the web to confirm what they believe and to provide evidence for what they're left and right?
CAPEHART: I hear your point, but if you look at groups like, say, No Labels. You've got people who, they just, there's such a thirst and hunger for ideas, whether they come from the right or the left. And if there's one place where they could go, just to: health care, gun control, arms control. Who has the ideas, whether it's from the right or the left? So the center doesn't necessarily have to be mushy.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Aren't the Washington Post and the New York Times and other things providing that already?
CAPEHART: Um, yes. There's the Washington Post, and the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. There doesn't have to be just one.
