CNS Responds
Topic: CNSNews.com
A July 22 article by Randy Hall houses CNSNews.com's response to Paul Begala's accurate claim that he was misquoted by CNS' Jered Ede, who wrote on July 15 that Begala said Republicans want to kill him. Hall does a surprisingly good job of explaining Begala's case; the interesting part is what CNS' David Thibault had to say:

David Thibault, editor-in-chief of Cybercast News Service, said readers "should not be fooled" by Begala's attempt to clarify his remarks.

"This is all about Begala trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube," Thibault said. "There was nothing unclear about what Begala said, and he, as a pundit, should know that words matter. We quoted him accurately. We even ran the quote in its entirety as a video clip on our website.

"And not surprisingly, the only ones defending Begala are his friends on the far left who think the same way he does," Thibault added.

"It's really not my place here to judge whether Republicans, as Begala claimed at the Campus Progress Student Conference are 'brain dead.' But let's put it this way: If Republicans, who have won the last three national elections, are brain dead, what does that say about Begala and the Democrats?"

What we learn from Thibault's statement:

-- Even though Begala used "they" to mean both Republicans and terrorists, and just before Begala said, "They want to kill me and my children if they can," he was talking about a terrorist attack, it was somehow "clear" to Thibault that in this instance, "they" meant Republicans.

-- Thibault and Ede are ideological soulmates who immediately assume the most negative and inflammatory interpretation of an ambiguous statement by a Democrat.

-- While Thibault says, "It's really not my place here to judge whether Republicans ... are 'brain dead,'" Thibault also believes it's not his place to check with the source of an ambiguous statement to make sure it accurately reflects the speaker's true meaning.

-- Thibault assumes that anyone who disagrees with him is "far left."

-- Thibault cares much more about ideology than journalism.