Former NBC News Washington Bureau chief Mark Whitaker, who deliberately omitted credible sexual assault charges against Bill Cosby in his fawning bio of the disgraced comedian shortly before they came to light, is now running interference for another media powerhouse’s foul deeds.
Confronted by the Washington Gadfly on the Upper West Side Sunday afternoon as he headed to a Lincoln Center concert, Whitaker pleaded ignorance and scurried away when asked to comment on his former colleague, MSNBC president Phil Griffin, perjuring himself in the Ed Schultz lawsuit.
(Note: this reporter tries not to mention himself more than necessary and is not afflicted with Journalism I-disease. But the most concise and amusing way to fully capture the sheer putrescence of what transpired is to just provide a rough approximation of the conversation, with comment added only for proper context.)
This was not an ambush interview, like outside the Washington Post with executive editor Marty Baron, about the massive race discrimination lawsuit against the paper that he refuses to cover.
Basically a putrescence magnet, I was on the way to see a movie on 68th and Broadway with my adorable parents when somebody I thought was Whitaker came into view.
Washington Gadfly: Hi. Are you Mark Whitaker?
Mark Whitaker: Yes.
Washington Gadfly: Hi, I’m Evan Gahr with the Daily Caller. How do you feel about Phil Griffin perjuring himself in the Ed Schultz lawsuit?
Mark Whitaker: [walking faster] I don’t know anything about it.
Really?
Somebody from a right-wing publication just accused one of your key ex-colleagues of lying under oath and you don’t even challenge him or ask more questions?
I was a reporter for the now-defunct Washington Times sister publication, Insight magazine, a spunky upstart with great reporting, a conservative bent but no orthodoxy, like The Daily Caller. If somebody from Mother Jones suddenly confronted me on the street and said, “How do you feel about longtime Washington Times editor Wesley Pruden perjuring herself in a deposition?” I would challenge him immediately and ferociously.
“What is your proof? Show me the transcript? Who says it’s perjury?”
Etc.
Unless, of course, I knew Pruden did perjure himself and the videotaped testimony was online and he never even disputed the allegation, despite multiple requests for comment.
Then I would probably stonewall and run away also and feign ignorance.
And so it went.
Washington Gadfly: You don’t know anything about it? I will tell you.
Phil Griffin testified that he hired Ed Schultz because he asked Barack Obama a question at his first question, not because veteran NBC News Washington employee Michael Queen pitched him. Except, as Schultz was forced to admit at his trial last year, he didn’t ask Obama a question.
Mark Whitaker: I am not going to comment. I don’t know anything about this.
Washington Gadfly: I just told you everything about it. What else would you like to know? Do you want me to get you on the phone with eminent law professor who says Griffin likely perjured himself?
How do you feel about this?
Mark Whitaker: I am trying to get to the concert.
Washington Gadfly: So your concert is more important than perjury.
No response, but quite the liberal in a hurry, Whitaker proceeded to hot foot it towards a concert that was about one block away and scheduled to start in maybe 15 minutes.
The exchange here shows how meaningless and deceitful most public apologies really are.
Anybody can tweet out an apology like Whitaker did when all of Cosby’s sexual abuse of vulnerable women that he deliberately ignored came to light. And the late New York Times media columnist David Carr called Whitaker one of Cosby’s “media enablers.”
Today, he proved himself one of Phil Griffin’s. And demonstrated that his mea culpa — like most issued by journalistic under public pressure — had as little value, as to use a great expression from my grandfather, as “yesterday’s piss.”
He had the chance to repent for his silent acquiescence with Bill Cosby’s evil by blowing the lid on the cover-up by NBC News for Ed Schultz and Phil Griffin. Instead, he colluded with Griffin as well.
The Mirror’s exclusive coverage of Schultz’s breach of partnership trial last year, where Griffin’s perjury came to light, was closely read by almost everybody at MSNBC, the NBC News Washington bureau and its network headquarters, according to multiple sources.
But if Whitaker, Chris Matthews, Chuck Todd or Andrea Mitchell or Justice Department Correspondent Pete Williams objected publicly to how Griffin apparently lied to cover-up for Ed Schultz cheating a loyal and veteran NBC News employee, Queen would likely get the recognition he deserved.
Politico media blogger Hadas Gold, New York Times television reporter John Koblin, Huffington Post honcho Sam Stein, who are deliberately ignoring the Griffin perjury, might be forced to report it because somebody “big” commented.
Plus, Phil Griffin would end up as co-anchor for breaking news on the breaking news desk along with his fellow fabricator Brian Williams.
Queen, who lost his breach of partnership trial last year because of a highly biased and shrewish judge, is expected to file a blockbuster appeal this month.
Stay tuned.
Whitaker’s concert ended around 5:15 p.m. this afternoon, but the NBC liberal putrescence band marches on.