Attkisson: We Should Be Questioning Authority Instead of Doubting Those Who Question Authority

Attkisson: We Should Be Questioning Authority Instead of Doubting Those Who Question Authority (RealClearPolitics)

HOWARD KURTZ, MEDIA BUZZ: Has being in the spotlight and being the subject of some of these attacks change your view of the media? Basically, your career has been on reporting on public events and digging into investigative stories, and now you're the story. Does that change your view of the way our business operates?

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Not much. This is what is discussed in the book. Some of this had already occurred, even though I had fully and well reported on Republican controversies and Bush administration controversies. As soon as I did start getting assigned to and digging into Obama controversies, the media already, even when I was at CBS, was sort of turning against that. There were surrogates operating in the press and it's highly effective, some of these propaganda campaigns and that's what I talk about in the book.

KURTZ: It seems to suggest that you think the media, much of the media, have a liberal bias or are susceptible to criticisms from the left more so than the right?

ATTKISSON: And I think we've seen that in the way they pick up second- and third-hand information and reports that I'm verifying them as if they can't possibly be wrong and yet keep unwarranted skepticism on any word that comes out of the mouths of those who question authority. I think that's backwards. I think that we should be questioning authority instead of all the effort being put into questioning those who question the authority, which I think is going on now.