Missing the point by a mile

Missing the point by a mile

: At the end of a very good online column today — started with a funny Crossfire of the Mind — Howard Kurtz drops this head-scratching quote from the new ombudsman/cop/conscience/whatever of CBS News:

“We didn’t come clean soon enough,” Linda Mason said yesterday. But, she added, “Dan does think he’s constantly attacked. If we backed off every story that was criticized, we wouldn’t be doing any stories.”

Misses the point by a mile. Let’s try to turn this quote around so it makes sense:

If you listened to the criticism that came in on your stories, you’d be doing better, more accurate stories.

That was the mistake here, Ms. Mason. That is what transparency — a word you’ve been throwing around — is really all about.