In a Oct. 30 MRC TimesWatch item (and Nov. 1 NewsBusters post), Clay Waters defends John Stossel’s speaking at an upcoming “tea party” event in Arkansas because … a New York Times reporter attended a pro-choice march 20 years ago.
No, really. After writing that a Times article “suggested that Stossel’s scheduled appearance in front of a conservative group is a rare foray of a journalist into a partisan political event that vindicates the White House’s attacks on Fox News,” Waters brought up “Former Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, who marched in a pro-choice rally in April 1989.”
Of course, the situation is not analogous; Greenhouse merely attended a political event, while Stossel is speaking at one.
Doesn’t it demonstrate the weakness of Waters’ argument that he has to go back all the way to 1989 to find something to bolster it? And isn’t telling that the MRC, which criticized Greenhouse’s behavior in 1989, is now seeking to justify Stossel’s behavior?