CBS’s “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer made an appearance on another Sunday show today: CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” At issue, Schieffer’s interview with AG Eric Holder last Sunday, which was actually pre-recorded four days earlier, on July 7, at the annual Aspen Ideas Festival.
What Schieffer didn’t ask was fodder on Fox News Channel last week, and that was Kurtz’s first question today:
KURTZ: Let’s start with the obvious question. Why did you not ask Eric Holder in that interview about this former Justice official’s allegation that a case against the New Black Panther Party was dropped because of racial politics?
AdvertisementSCHIEFFER: Well, it’s certainly a question that is a legitimate question to ask. And basically what happened was this all really became a story when the whistleblower came out and testified that he’d had to leave the Justice Department and so on. And, frankly, had I known about that, I would have asked the question.
I was on vacation that week. This happened — apparently, it got very little publicity. And, you know, I just didn’t know about it.
And later, what Schieffer finds “absurd” about some of the Fox News coverage.
> Related: WaPo ombudsman Andrew Alexander asks: Why the silence from The Post on Black Panther Party story?
KURTZ: One last point on this Black Panther case. Fox’s Bill O’Reilly making the point that none of the network newscasts have covered this story. He says: The network newscasts are not being honest about news because their agenda is to protect President Obama. Your thoughts?
SCHIEFFER: Well, I think the reason that there hasn’t been much coverage on it is there is a question about how significant this really is. I think it is — you know, the coverage or lack of coverage has to do with editors’ news judgment. It doesn’t have anything to do with protecting President Obama. And I mean, I think, frankly, that’s absurd on the face of it.