After Katie Couric's (and CBS's) credibility took a nasty hit last week with the embarrassing Wall St. Journal plagiarism incident you'd think she (and they) would be obsessive about getting things right.
You'd be wrong.
In April 12's "Notebook," Couric asked: "Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?" followed by a recitation of thoroughly debunked rumors about Barack Obama's youth (video, right -- courtesy MediaMatters):
COURIC: Hi, everyone. Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?
Barack Obama has arguably the most diverse religious background of any candidate ever. He was raised in Indonesia by a Christian mother and Muslim stepfather and attended a Catholic school -- but while growing up, also studied Islam. That background sparked rumors that he had studied in a radical madrassa, or Quranic school -- rumors his campaign denied, declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian. Last month, the Los Angeles Times interviewed people who grew up with Obama. "We prayed in the mosque," one of them said, "but not seriously," noting that Obama also prayed with his Catholic schoolmates.
It's too soon to know what America will decide about Barack Obama or his background, but it's not too soon to wonder if America will see that as an asset or a liability.
That's a page from my notebook. I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.As Rachel Sklar notes, the transcript has since been changed:
In this case, the rumors were specifically false, meant to smear, and had been totally disproven by CNN. In January. This is April.
CBS corrected the print version on the site, which now reads like so:
"Hi, everyone. Is America ready to elect a President whose connections with Islam were the subject of rumor and innuendo? Barack Obama has arguably the most diverse religious background of any candidate, ever. He was raised in Indonesia by a Christian mother and Muslim stepfather, and attended a Catholic school, but while growing up, also studied Islam. That background sparked rumors that he had studied in a radical madrassa, or Koranic school - rumors later disproved. Obama is now a practicing Christian."