Re: CNN'S SCREWUP

On Nov 30, 6:28 am, "Pookie" <pookie18...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
CNN'S SCREWUP
By MICHELLE MALKIN

November 30, 2007 -- IF any more political plants turn up at CNN's
presidential debates, the cable-news network will have to merge with the
Home and Garden channel.
At CNN's Democratic debate in Las Vegas two weeks back, moderator Wolf
Blitzer introduced several citizen questioners as "ordinary people,
undecided voters." But they later turned out to include a former Arkansas
Democratic director of political affairs, the president of the Islamic
Society of Nevada and a far left anti-war activist who'd been quoted in
newspapers lambasting Harry Reid for his failure to pull out of Iraq.

Yet CNN failed to disclose those affiliations and activism during the
broadcast.

Behold - the phony political foliage bloomed again at Wednesday night's much
hyped CNN/YouTube GOP debate.

Oh, CNN did make careful note that Grover Norquist (who asked about his
anti-tax pledge) is a Republican activist with Americans for Tax Reform. But
somehow the network's layers and layers of fact-checkers missed several
easily identified Democratic activists posing as ordinary, undecided
citizens.

The tallest plant was a retired gay vet, one "Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr," who
questioned - or rather, lectured - the candidates on video and in person
about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that bans open gays from the
military.

Funny. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was exactly the policy CNN adopted in not
telling viewers that Kerr is a member of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual- Transgender
Americans for Hillary.

Sen. Clinton's campaign Web site features a press release announcing Kerr
and other members of the committee in June. And a basic Web search turns up
Kerr's past support as a member of a veterans' steering committee for the
John Kerry for President campaign - and his prior appearance on CNN in
December '03.

CNN's moderator, Anderson Cooper, singled out Kerr (who'd been flown in for
the event) in the vast audience, giving him a chance for his own
filibustering moment. Marvel at it: Not one CNN journalist uncovered the
connection or thought it pertinent to disclose that Kerr's heart belonged to
Hillary.

When righty commentator Bill Bennett pointed out the facts to Cooper after
the debate, a red-faced Cooper feebly blubbered: "That was something
certainly unknown to us, and had we known that, would have been disclosed by
us. It turns out we have just looked at it."

Cluelessness doesn't absolve CNN of journalistic malpractice. Neither does
editing out Kerr's question (as the network did on rebroadcast, to
camouflage the potted plant).

The story is far from over: Cooper and CNN still owe their audience - and
the GOP candidates - a bouquet of mea culpas for due diligence and
disclosure lapses. Beyond Kerr, Internet sleuths have uncovered several
other Democratic activists lurking in the YouTube garden:

* A young woman named "Journey" questioned the candidates on abortion. On
her blog (easily accessed from her YouTube channel), she declares herself a
John Edwards supporter. Post debate, she immediately posted a video wearing
. . . her John Edwards '08 T-shirt.

* David Cercone of Florida asked a question seemingly on behalf of the Log
Cabin Republicans. He had declared his support for Obama on an Obama '08
campaign blog back in July.

* Concerned mother LeeAnn Anderson asked about lead in toys with her two
children in her lap. She is actually a staffer and prominent Pittsburgh
union activist for the United Steelworkers - which has endorsed Edwards.

On other questioners, elementary Google searches show that:

* Ted Faturos, who asked about ethanol subsidies, had served as an intern
for Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).

* Adam Florzak, who asked about Social Security, quit his job as a welder
and is working with Sen. *** Durbin's (D-Ill.) staff on the issue.

* Mark Strauss, who urged Ron Paul to run as an independent, had publicly
supported Gov. Bill Richardson in July.

Alternative media platforms - talk radio, the Internet and this op-ed page -
have spread these facts like kudzu. But the persistent media double standard
is obvious to everyone but the manure spreaders at CNN: Had GOP candidates
somehow been able to insert their operatives and supporters into a
Democratic debate, and had, say, Fox News failed to vet the questioners and
presented them as average citizens, both Fox and the GOP would be treated as
the century's worst media sinners.

Whether through, as one blogger put, "constructive incompetence" or
"convenient ineptitude," CNN has committed journalistic malpractice under
the guise of "citizen" participation.

In a now richly ironic interview with Wired.- com before the debate, David
Bohrman, a CNN senior vice president, explained why videos were picked not
by popular vote, but by supposedly seasoned CNN journalists: The Web is
still too immature a medium to set an agenda for a national debate, he
claimed. "It's really easy for the campaigns to game the system."

"You've seen how effective the Ron Paul campaign [supporters] have been on
the Web," he noted. "You don't know if there are 40 or 4 million of them. It
would be easy for a really organized campaign to stack the deck."

What does Bohrman have to say about his crack staff now?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11302007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/cnns_...

In your world Democrats aren't allowed to question Republicans.
You're mistaken though, and that's tough ***.
.

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