The Media Watchdog Slides Three Past CNN
By Ben Spanner
POSTED: May 7, 2008
3. Russert Knows No Bounds Facts
Recently on “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, the host made the point to say, “many Democrats fear Republicans in the fall will string together an ad which shows É Barack Obama with his hands clasped in front of him rather than holding his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.” What Timmy Russert so conveniently forgot is that the photo he is referring to in “Time” actually has a caption beneath it which notes that the picture was taken during the national anthem, not the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course the problem is far greater than this, as pundits attempt to make a name for themselves and schotty reporting crams out everything and anything that will sell, regardless of facts.
2. CNN’s Strike 2
CNN established strike one when they swung and missed at a pitch called “an ability to get viewers who stopped watching Fox.” This second strike comes when Wolf “Perpetual Stubble” Blitzer did a story comparing the wealth of the Bushs, Clintons, Cheneys, Obamas and McCains. Well, almost the last one. Each coupling was placed on a bar chart displaying their wealth and a picture of the political head and their spouse. The Clintons were the top at $20.4 million for the last fiscal year while Senator John McCain, the only one not picture with his spouse, had a meager $405,000. Why did they leave out John McCain’s wife Cindy? I really have no answer for that. What I do have an answer for is that Cindy McCain is reportedly worth $100 million and if the chart were displayed correctly we’d see quite the change.
1. Tony Snow and CNN’s third Strike
Tony Snow, former White House Press Secretary for many years and famous for his mistreatment of the press, has been added to the CNN news teams as a conservative analyst. I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I must have blacked out for a second. Did I just type that Tony Snow has joined CNN? After years of having his own show on Fox News, being labeled a permanent “fill-in” for O’Reilly’s “The Radio Factor,” and not to mention being the mouthpiece of one of (if not the most) subversive and inaccessible administrations of all time Tony Snow is joining CNN. From the administration’s firing of White House attorneys to the false re-assurance that everything is fine in Baghdad, Snow is one of the most manipulative figures in political discourse. But this isn’t about him. He’s going to be the way he is. What this is about is CNN’s relentless pursuit of yellow journalism. Back in my hey-day (2003), you had Fox News who was bad and biased and CNN who was just bad. As long as you scoured the Internet daily and listened to the BBC, you could find out what was going on with the world. But due to Fox’s decline in ratings, CNN has taken its place as the main source for Americans to get their news. So with this addition of Tony Snow, we can expect CNN to continue to not give us the facts and instead give us yelling, wagging fingers. Strike three CNN, you’re out.
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Contact Ben at bspanner@graffitiwv.com
