One of the things I think the press doesn’t do well is deal with liars. Corporate culture, which involves a lot of lying, is taken for granted. The corporate folks have it both ways: When accused of something, they say, “Oh we would never do that! I’m a husband, a father! I have children! We would never pollute that river/steal our customers’ money/break myriad federal laws/etc. etc. etc. ”

And when they are caught, they say, “Well, it was my responsibility to the shareholders to not acknowledge the truth at that juncture.”

Now, that’s how it goes with crimes and scandals, but it also happens at a much less toxic level on a quotidian basis, but the liars in questions rarely get called on it.

We saw it the other day, when Les Moonves, the head of CBS, visited CBS News to try to buck up staff morale. Wrote the NY Times:

On Friday Mr. Moonves and Mr. McManus visited CBS News headquarters on West 57th Street in Manhattan in an effort to raise morale and offered their full backing to Ms. Couric, saying she would definitely continue as their anchor.

Emphasis added. Moonves was of course lying to his staff and the public; several national papers had already reported that Moonves and Couric had begun to discuss her departure, and, as we saw a few days later, Couric’s ratings are down to unprecedentedly low levels in any case, and no one at the network has a plan to raise them.

Which is fine. My complaint is with the press, which next week will begin referring to him again blandly as “CBS chairman Les Moonves.” Why don’t they call him a liar, too? Why don’t we see journalism like:

“… Moonves said, though in the past when asked about CBS matters he has lied,” or,

“… said the CBS Chairman, a known liar.”

It’s worse because he has ultimate oversight of an institution, CBS News, that should be synonymous with intergrity and forthrightness. It is a funny thing to natter on about, these days, but that’s just another example of what doesn’t get said:

“Moonves, though the titular head of an organization that asks millions of Americans to trust its reporting, lies a lot.”

I don’t think it’s a cheap shot to bring his marriage into this; he’s married to Julie Chen, who besides being several decades younger than him is allowed to be both a correspondent on the CBS Early Show and host of “Big Brother.” Talking about ethics is a pointless exercise when it comes to reality TV, of course, but shouldn’t someone care that a CBS newsperson like Chen spends half her time giving pretend reality to viewers?

Like maybe the chairman of her network? Oh, wait …