Good for Gerson

We're almost always at odds with former Bushit speechwriter and op-ed columnist for the Kaplan Daily Michael "Mushroom Cloud" Gerson. However, he's written an interesting column that slams largely right-wing dirty trickers who doctor video and peddle the trash to the broader media. Case in point: the recent "expose" of NPR by video sleazebag James "G. Gordon Diddy" O'Keefe. As Gerson says,

"It is now clear that O’Keefe’s editing of the raw video from his interview with NPR’s top fundraiser, Ron Schiller, was selective and deceptive. . .But the controversy also raises deeper issues about the ethics of undercover journalism. In this case, O’Keefe did not merely leave a false impression; he manufactured an elaborate, alluring lie."

And,

"These tactics are not a new brand of gonzo journalism. They are a sophisticated version of the political dirty trick. Would it be citizen journalism to fool a senator’s psychiatrist into revealing demeaning information about his or her patient? Or to befriend a prominent conservative pastor, goad him into making homophobic statements, then edit, exaggerate and put them on the Internet?"

Sadly, ethics are not in the tool kit of amoral punks like O'Keefe.