COMMENTARY | Tom Brokaw is "extremely uncomfortable," says Mediaite, and doesn't want his name associated with Mitt Romney's GOP primary race.
Through the NBC legal department, the reporter is requesting Romney's campaign stop using a Brokaw clip from a 1997 "NBC Nightly News" broadcast.
If there is bit of anti-Newt Gingrich editorializing in Brokaw's script or even in his tone, "NBC Nightly News" is to blame for that, not Romney. The clip Romney's team is showing is unaltered, unedited and has nothing woven around it.
Essentially, you have a major network, a celebrated reporter and a representation of fact. For NBC to worry years later that the unaltered broadcast might be put to partisan use is an interesting revelation.
NBC apparently felt its original broadcast was objective then. What's different about it now?
In his 1997 broadcast , Brokaw highlighted Gingrich's contradictions in "preaching a higher standard in American politics." Brokaw goes on to report Gingrich "has on his own record the judgment of his peers, Democrat and Republican alike."
Gingrich was censured by the Congress and paid $300,000 in costs.
Romney's team argues the clip meets "fair use" provisions of the U.S. Copyright Office. U.S. copyright law allows educational and noncommercial use of such information as the clip provided.
Is it not educational and noncommercial?
Every political team is busy with "opposition research" and the newspapers and video archives provide a gold mine of useful information. Will the barbs flying between Romney and Gingrich not appear in President Barack Obama's campaign ads?
FactCheck.org pointed out how President Obama made "misleading use of quotes pulled from newspapers" in 2008. Is Romney being unfairly targeted by a network with tentacles into broadcast centers like MSNBC and CNBC?
If I were on Romney's campaign team, I'd advise the NBC legal staff we were considering its request. Then I would stall to let the impact of the ad sink in.
That is cynical perhaps, but it seems to be the course Romney is taking. The latest news from Atlantic Wire is Romney will underscore the kerfuffle by meeting with the NBC lawyers to discuss the matter.
As Romney was quoted in an Associated Press story, politics is not "beanbag." Neither is broadcast or print journalism.
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent Yahoo contributor, concentrating in news and financial writing.
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