The Columbia Journalism Review, which is largely seen by the journalistic community as the great repository of journalistic standards, has now suggested that CBS News ought never to cover issues negative to Democrats because CBS also owns the conservative imprint Threshold Editions. (Full disclosure: Threshold Editions is my publisher as well.) In the aftermath of CBS News’ 60 Minutes debacle on Benghazi, when reporter Lara Logan gave airtime to lying security officer Dylan Davies about his non-experiences during the September 11, 2012 terror attacks, the Journalism Review suggested that Logan be barred from any coverage of Benghazi:

Adding to concern over Logan doing this story is that Threshold Books, which published The Embassy House, specializes in conservative nonfiction. Its authors are notable Republicans: Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Lynne Cheney, Mary Cheney, and Sean Hannity. Republican consultant Mary Matalin is its chief editor. None are friendly to the Obama administration, which has taken considerable heat from the GOP for Benghazi.

But the Journalism Review draws no lines here – presumably, that would mean that CBS News could only cover stories beneficial to Democrats, since Threshold Editions is conservative. And the Journalism Review has never suggested that CBS News not cover stories harmful to Republicans or conservative causes, although Simon and Schuster, owned by CBS, publishes noted leftists Piers Morgan and Michael Moore, for example.

The Journalism Review’s shortcomings don’t stop there: CJR claims that because Logan has said in the past that she believes the United States should “exact revenge and let the world know that the United States will not be attacked on its own soil,” she should not have reported on Benghazi:

Seek retribution? Exact revenge? That may be the kind of language media activist Glenn Greenwald can fire off, but it isn’t what folks expect from a 60 Minutes correspondent. And it’s not what viewers should expect from Logan if she is going to report on Stevens and the highly charged political controversy surrounding his murder in Benghazi.

But CJR has never claimed that motivated liberals in the journalistic community be barred from covering stories, even though the vast majority of journalists are strongly to the left. The CJR’s standards are, as usual, skewed.