A TRUE STORY ABOUT HECKLING

Right-wingers were appalled at the bogus story that CNN's Michael Ware heckled John McCain. Anyone remember any right-wing outrage about this?

...On October 27, 1999, [Al] Gore and [Bill] Bradley staged their first debate in a small venue at Dartmouth College. The session was broadcast live on CNN. The 300 journalists in attendance watched on large-screen TVs, penned up in a separate pressroom.

... Howard Mortman, then of the Hotline, appeared on that publication's cable show one week later. Mortman described the remarkable scene inside that Hanover hall.

... "The media groaned, howled and laughed almost every time Al Gore said something," Mortman reported. "What happened with Bradley?" a panelist asked. "Stone silence. Really," Mortman said....

Seven weeks after the Dartmouth debate, Salon's Jake Tapper described the same conduct. Appearing on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, he replied to a question about "liberal bias:"

TAPPER: Well, I can tell you that the only media bias I have detected in terms of a group media bias was, at the first debate between Bill Bradley and Al Gore, there was hissing for Gore in the media room up at Dartmouth College. The reporters were hissing Gore, and that's the only time I’ve ever heard the press room boo or hiss any candidate of any party at any event....

If we're talking about the utter abandonment of any pretense of objectivity, does it even matter that this wasn't done to Gore's face?

Do you know of any high-minded right-wing defender of journalistic standards who's expressed outrage about this?