The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Did I miss something? With the departure of CNN president Jonathan Klein, the television news station seems to have found some mojo again. Instead of allowing their guests to set the agenda and proclaim their own truths, reporters have started calling bullshit on the blatant lies and spin.

First we had Soledad O'Brien taking Mitt Romney flack and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu to task for lying about President Obama's healthcare reform and the differences between Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's plans. When Sununu keeps spouting off verifiable lies about the Obama plan, O'Brien doesn't back down about pointing out the facts.

This morning we had another example of this new trend of telling the whole story when National Organization for Marriage jackass Brian Brown appeared on the station to cry for "civility" around their anti-gay policies and initiatives in the aftermath of yesterday's shooting at the Family Research Council's headquarters in Washington DC. Brown attempts to lay the blame at the feet of the Southern Poverty Law Center for designating FRC a "hate group."

Video and more after the break.

While Brown tries to soft-shoe around the facts that the FRC and NOM often use extremely hateful rhetoric when talking about LGBT people as a way to skirt the issue, the CNN host doesn't let him get away with it by quoting an actual FRC statement. While she pressed back once, I'd have liked her to continue with more statements from both organizations and actually forced him to condone the violent and abusive rhetoric of these groups.

So what do you think? Are television reporters finally finding their inner journalists? Will they stop letting these anti-gay bigots and Republican toadies spout off complete lies wrapped in the shroud of "opinion?" Or is this a fluke?