 Mike Wallace at Brady Center fund-raiser |
CBS News’ ethical standards are being challenged after veteran reporter Mike Wallace’s appearance at an anti-gun Brady Center fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., last month.
At the event, held at the French Embassy, Wallace played a clip of his “60 Minutes” interview with then-NRA president Charlton Heston, whom he described as the “self-righteous enemy of the Jim and Sarah Brady Bunch,” reported blogger and radio host Cam Edwards at NRANews.com.
Edwards said that afterwards, Wallace mocked Heston by holding up his hands, as if holding a rifle, and saying, “in my dead hands … remember when he used to hold up … ” as the crowd tittered.
Wallace told event honoree Art Buchwald he gave a $250 contribution to the Brady Center.
The NRANews.com host sent a letter to the CBS News weblog, asking if the appearance comported with the network’s policies.
CBS News Public Eye blogger Vaughn Ververs said he spoke with Linda Mason, senior vice president for standards and special projects at CBS News, who said: “We allow CBS correspondents to speak at various functions and occasionally show video. We have strict regulations that if a CBS correspondent becomes identifiable with one side of a controversial issue, they will not be allowed to cover that issue in the future.”
Ververs said he asked Mason whether Wallace’s appearance made him “identifiable” with the gun-control cause.
She replied, “we’re looking into it to determine” that.
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