Reality-Based Engineering: I Remember Why I Hate CNN, Part II

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I Remember Why I Hate CNN, Part II

I forget how I got to the link (click the title above, or see the YouTube vid below) but all it did was 100% validate what I had said about CNN recently, regarding their "echoes of Crossfire" approach to CNN newsreading:

and it became apparent that all CNN had were two talking heads, a liberal and a conservative, and each ran through their talking points about how this issue would play in the electorate...it just seems that CNN has yet to grow up and NOT have echoes of Crossfire each time they have some political thing to talk about...where does this get them? Hmm, now reading the wikipage on crossfire, I can see why they've not been able to shake the format - they've done it since 1982!!!

Now, Candy Crowley totally validates this by stating "I'm not going to be the one to tell you whether it's equal or not," that it's not up to her to catch the lying, but to report & have voters decide:

Crowley's performance last night was astonishing. Asked whether McCain's lies have been worse than Obama's, Crowley says she isn't going to make that call, adds that it's up to voters to sort it out, and -- best of all -- launches into a discussion of Obama's supposed falsehoods in order to argue that both sides do it...
To his credit, Mark Halperin stepped in and made just this point, noting quite accurately that the lies of the McCain campaign are far more central to his campaign than anything Obama has done.

Halperin isn't some whiny liberal blogger. He's the ultimate D.C. media insider. If he can't persuade both-sides-do-it holdouts like Crowley to inform their viewers, then no one can.
"I'm not going to be the one to tell you whether it's equal or not," Crowley said of the lying on both sides. Really? If CNN reporters don't think this is their role, whose job is it, then?

Yup, I wuz right...oh, and two other validation points here and here about another CNN episode which shows that I'm correct...