CBS’s esteemed newsmagazine broadcast 60 Minutes has spent decades building a strong reputation for journalistic “objectivity” and hard-hitting news. But on Sunday, during a widely mocked profile of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the program’s apparent aversion to bias backfired spectacularly after Lesley Stahl, one of its most distinguished correspondents, let Greene spew baseless invective with little to no pushback.
At one point Stahl specifically asked the Georgia Republican why she doesn’t use a lighter touch in wording her “over-the-top” smears. She also went so far as to describe Greene—a former QAnon enthusiast who once endorsed calls to execute top Democrats—as “smart and fearless.”
Perhaps most notable, though, was Stahl’s rather toothless response to Greene’s claim that Democrats support children “being sexualized and having transgender surgeries”—with the lawmaker adding that sexualizing kids “is what pedophiles do.”
“Wow. Okay,” Stahl replied. “But my question really is, can’t you fight for what you believe in without all that name-calling and without the personal attacks?” In other words, Stahl, the 81-year-old embodiment of Washington’s old guard press corps, was troubled not by the substance of Greene’s lie—the depiction of gay and transgender people as inherently predatory—but by the unpleasant name-calling used in its packaging.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/marjorie-taylor-greene-hijacked-60-minutes
At one point Stahl specifically asked the Georgia Republican why she doesn’t use a lighter touch in wording her “over-the-top” smears. She also went so far as to describe Greene—a former QAnon enthusiast who once endorsed calls to execute top Democrats—as “smart and fearless.”
Perhaps most notable, though, was Stahl’s rather toothless response to Greene’s claim that Democrats support children “being sexualized and having transgender surgeries”—with the lawmaker adding that sexualizing kids “is what pedophiles do.”
“Wow. Okay,” Stahl replied. “But my question really is, can’t you fight for what you believe in without all that name-calling and without the personal attacks?” In other words, Stahl, the 81-year-old embodiment of Washington’s old guard press corps, was troubled not by the substance of Greene’s lie—the depiction of gay and transgender people as inherently predatory—but by the unpleasant name-calling used in its packaging.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/marjorie-taylor-greene-hijacked-60-minutes
