Remember Couric's ridiculously positive reporting on Iraq? After getting pushback from viewers, prompted by Moveon, CBS apparently sent emails out to viewers who complained saying they had probably just heard misinformation from 'some blog'.
A reporter at WebProNews followed up to find out more about the squabble, and when he wrote that CBS attacked bloggers, got threatened with a lawsuit by Couric's PR department. Here's Jason Lee Miller:
A few minutes later, Ms. Farley, by telephone, insists that everything that was said yesterday was off the record, that CBS didn't even have a "no comment" because there was nothing to comment on, and if I printed that I could expect to hear from CBS's legal department. Very suddenly, then, she has turned my puff piece into a major story about a major network trying to bully a Web-publication with the threat of a SLAPP suit. And I am stunned by how she has transformed something routine into something newsworthy.
This sue-happy vicious culture comes from the top. The CEO of CBS, Les Moonves, filed a $500 million lawsuit against Howard Stern out of spite. He also employed Don Imus for years before being forced to fire him recently for racial and sexist slurs. Lovely organization you've got going, Mr. Moonves.
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