Diversity in the Newsroom

Earlier today, John Hinderaker of Powerline wrote the following:

the fundamental problem that led to the downfall of 60 Minutes and, perhaps, CBS News, was the fact that no one involved in the reportorial or editorial process was a Republican or a conservative. If there had been anyone in the organization who did not share Mary Mapes's politics, who was not desperate to counteract the Swift Boat Vets and deliver the election to the Democrats, then certain obvious questions would have been asked...

I couldn't agree more. About two weeks after CBS aired its RatherGate episode of 60 minutes II, I had an email exchange with Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk website. In it I suggested the following:

Regarding your comment about not asking your staff their political views: The problem is that no one familiar with both their (and your) coverage of RatherGate and with the actual facts of the matter would need to ask. People are people, not machines. Given the currently polarized climate of our nation, the best way of assuring neutrality is not by pretending not to be biased, but by deliberately creating a system of intellectual checks and balances (like the rivalry set up between prosecution and defense in our court system), that would immediately reveal the stunning omissions and distortions of which Campaign Desk and so many other media players are regularly guilty.
The first major media player to do this wins.

Still waiting...