TPM: CBS News Consultant Michael O'Hanlon Want to See Batiste Back on CBS

CBS News Consultant O'Hanlon Wants To See Batiste Back On CBS

May 15, 2007 -- 03:36 PM EST

Okay, guess who thinks retired General John Batiste -- who was fired by CBS as a news consultant for bashing Bush and the war in that VoteVets ad -- should be allowed back on the network? Another of CBS' most high-profile news consultants, and one who was a proponent of the "surge," at that: Michael O'Hanlon.

I just spoke to O'Hanlon, and he told me that he wants to see Batiste back on CBS because he views him as a "legitimate actor in the debate."

O'Hanlon, who's also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has appeared on CBS dozens of times over the years. Though he openly backed the surge (with the caveat that he's skeptical that it will work), he wasn't disqualified as a CBS consultant by his high-profile support for the policy. CBS justified giving Batiste the ax by saying, among other things, that Batiste's "advocacy" against the war disqualified him in the eyes of the network.

"I would be personally gratified to see Batiste back on CBS," O'Hanlon told me. "I find his opinions to be quite strong, but the approach he's taken is a legitimate one. I find him a legitimate actor in the debate."

O'Hanlon stopped short of directly criticizing CBS and noted that he didn't think CBS -- a news network that traffics less in strong opinions than, say, talk shows do -- was necessarily obliged to give Batiste a platform. But O'Hanlon did stress that he didn't think Batiste's views should disqualify him from the airwaves, adding that Batiste's views "should be part of the broader public debate."

Unclear why CBS can't understand that.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/05/another_cbs_new_1.php

-- Greg Sargent