It has now been nearly a week since Power Line first raised troubling questions about the “GOP Talking Points” memo distributed to Republicans in the Senate. It has been three days since Power Line and In the Agora quoted an ABC News official who appeared to be backing away from the assertion that the memo was circulated by Republicans. It has been two days since Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) asked for a formal investigation into the memo and its source.

Yet only two newspapers in the entire country have mentioned the controversy. Worse, a number of MSM commentators continue to assert that these were “GOP Talking Points” distributed and/or written by Republican staffers, even though no one at either ABC News or the Washington Post (the two news outlets that first broke the story) is saying their reporting supports that assertion.

We noted yesterday that Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post’s media critic, referred to the unsigned talking points as a “Republican strategy memo”–a term that strongly implies the document was both written and circulated by Republican officials.

This morning the State published a column by Leonard Pitts that cites the memo without mentioning the controversy regarding the memo’s source. The Dallas Morning News published a column by Ellen Goodman yesterday that does the same thing. See also Newsweek, the Baltimore Sun, and the Detroit Free Press. And CNN.

Also yesterday, Mark Shields repeated the “GOP Talking Points” meme on Newshour with Jim Lehrer:

When you get a memo circulating on the floor of the House that says - Republicans — it’s important moral issue and our pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue, they condemned it — did the Republican leadership — they never denied it and they never disavowed it.

In fact, the memo was distributed on the floor of the Senate, not the House, and both Senate Majority Leader Bill First and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay condemned it. Here’s Frist’s statement, released on March 20:

There have been reports of a memo suggesting a political nature to Congress’ efforts on behalf of Mrs. Schiavo. I have never seen the memo, I did not authorize the memo, and I condemn the content of the memo and reaffirm that the interest in this case by myself, and the many members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle, is to assure that Mrs. Schiavo has another chance at life.

After Shields finished his misinformed rant, Jim Lehrer turned to David Brooks for a response. Unfortunately, Brooks seemed to endorse everything Shields said. He was completely unaware of the controversy regarding the source of the memo:

JIM LEHRER: What do you think, David? Frist and DeLay.

DAVID BROOKS: Frist and DeLay, I don’t disagree with anything Mark said about Frist and DeLay. I think they’re… Frist is a sincere man and in many ways a wonderfully admirable man who sometimes doesn’t let his true self come out because he’s running for president. I basically think that’s the situation. And DeLay I think much less highly of and what Mark described is just grandiosity which afflicts some politicians.

JIM LEHRER: The memo. Now you want to talk about the memo.

DAVID BROOKS: The memo is true and untrue. Listen, I think the Republican Party is a socially conservative party. They are deeply morally offended by what’s happening to Terri Schiavo. And so to discern the politics from the sincerity I think is just impossible to do. Politicians rightly identify the same. They’re the same. And so most people one meets on the social conservative side are totally sincere about this and would do it even knowing how unpopular it may turn out to be.

At this point, as I mentioned above, only two newspapers in the entire nation have mentioned the controversy: the Sun-Sentinel, which gave the story two sentences of coverage, and the Post, which ran Kurtz’s lame observations.

How much longer will the MSM be able to keep its head buried in the sand?

Earlier:

Another fishy memo
Did the MSM learn nothing from Rathergate?
MSM ignores Schiavo memo story
Kurtz keeps quiet
Howie Kurtz tries to cover up

Update: Too bad no one in the MSM has done this.

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