NPR Suggests Group Critical of Dems May Be Under Investigation in Anthrax Attack



NPR has conceded that it was “inappropriate” for reporter David Kestenbaum to have suggested that the Traditional Values Coalition was a suspect in the anthrax letters sent to Senators Daschle and Leahy.

On the January 22 Morning Edition, Kestenbaum had reported: “Two of the anthrax letters were sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both Democrats. One group who had a gripe with Daschle and Leahy is the Traditional Values Coalition, which, before the attacks, had issued a press release criticizing the Senators for trying to remove the phrase 'so help me God' from the oath.” Kestenbaum continued: “The Traditional Values Coalition, however, told me the FBI had not contacted them and then issued a press release saying NPR was in the pocket of the Democrats and trying to frame them. But investigators are thinking along these lines. FBI agents won't discuss the case, but the people they have spoken with will.”

On Tuesday, CNSNews.com’s Jim Burns reported that NPR’s pull back was read during Tuesday's Morning Edition. NPR spokesperson Jess Sarmiento relayed the statement to CNSNews.com: “A story last week about the ongoing anthrax investigation mentioned the Traditional Values Coalition, whom we called to ask if they had been contacted by the FBI. They said they had not since there is no evidence that they were or should be investigated. It was inappropriate to name them on the air.”

CNS.com’s Burns noted, however, that “Rev. Lou Sheldon, Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition wasn't impressed with NPR's statement. ‘They have not apologized, neither have they retracted, neither have they said they were sorry. They have simply tried to further distance themselves from the wrong that they have done.’”

Click here for the entire CNSNews.com story.

In a column titled, “Those Dastardly ‘Fundamentalists,’” MRC President Brent Bozell took up the NPR incident as well as a recent case in which a Washington Post reporter equated “religious conservatives” in the U.S. with the Taliban.

(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)

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