OBAMARAMA

Following an April 12 Media Matters for America item on a troubling CBS News segment that mischaracterized Sen. Obama’s educational and religious background, the network has corrected the record, noting that the rumors Couric rehashed in the segment were effectively debunked.

From the Media Matters piece (with video):

Couric claimed that Obama’s “background sparked rumors that he had studied at a radical madrassa, or Quranic school — rumors his campaign denied, declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian.” However, in noting simply that Obama’s campaign “denied” the rumors that he attended a madrassa, Couric ignored the fact that these allegations have been thoroughly debunked.

The next day, CBS’s Brian Montopoli noted in a blog post that “Media Matters is making a fair point here: To bring up the madrassa rumor and note only that ‘his campaign denied’ it leaves open the possibility that the claim is true. Since we know that it is not, Couric would have been well served to have pointed out as much.” The original report has since been edited to reflect this acknowledgment — though to my knowledge no correction has been made on-air.

Kudos to Media Matters for this victory. These are the sorts of subtle inaccuracies that weave their way into the public understanding of a candidate, and must be corrected wherever possible.