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Posted at 1:05pm on May 18, 2008 The Sunday Morning Talk Shows: The Review

No one mentioned Plouffe by name.

By Mark Kilmer

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Preface

On FOX News Sunday, Chris Dodd averred that John McCain had thrown away "years of principle" to become a Bush clone, Senator Jon Kyl asked about just what would Barack Obama talk to Ahmadinejad? Seriously, what do you say to the guy in negotiations?

Next up for host Chris Wallace, Karl Rove said that Obama trying to link McCain to Bush was good strategy in the short term, as it wipes a broke Hillary Clinton campaign out of the news in Oregon and Kentucky, but it won't work in the long term. It will match Barry against McCain in a foreign policy debate, which is not a good idea for the Obama team.

On ABC's This Week, Joe Biden said that Hillary is "the most powerful woman in American politics," Nancy be damned. Next up, House Republican leader John Boehner promised that neither he nor Tom Davis RCCC Chairman Tom Cole is going anywhere. [(Davis, not in the GOP leadership, is quitting Congress after this term.)]

On NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert referred to Jim Webb's latest novel as: "The Bible." Webb threatened that if President Bush does not sign his politically-penned GI Bill, it will come back to haunt John McCain with veterans in the election this fall.

On CBS' Face the Nation, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former Ross Perot campaign manager Ed Rollins agreed that Republicans had to get back to their roots. Rollins insisted that it was a mistake for Republicans to campaign against Obama in local races where local issues were what is important, excepting that Democrats should campaign against the unpopular George Bush. Crist said that Bush's remarks on appeasement before the Israeli Knesset, though he doesn't how they affect the politics, were straight from the President's Heart.

Then Mario Cuomo pushed the Dem "dream ticket," Obama and Hillary, calling it "poetry and prose coming together." Next up for host Bob Schieffer, former Colorado Governor Roy Romer said that Hillary was not Barry's only option. He suggested Kansas Governor Kathy Sebelius and John Edwards.

Finally, on CNN's Late Edition, Hillary giggled about the "nice picture of Barack" on the cover of Time magazine and agreed that Obama should not meet with Ahmadinejad without preconditions. She and Wolf agreed that daughter Chelsea loves her.

Read the rest of what happened in the show-by-show review beneath the fold:

Posted in ABC | CNN | CNS | FOX | NBC | Special Features | The Sunday Shows — Comments (29)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:52am on Apr. 7, 2008 CNN amplifies Ed Schultz

By Soren Dayton

Over the weekend, there was a mini-scandal with lefty talk radio host Ed Schultz calling John McCain a "warmonger" in Barack Obama's opening act. We covered it here. Well, ... Schultz is at it again, and this time CNN is giving the assist by inviting Schultz onto their morning show.

USA Today reports:

"I'm sorry, John, the label sticks. John McCain is a warmonger," liberal radio host Ed Schultz said a few minutes ago on CNN's American Morning. ...

"Labeling a candidate is not being disrespectful," Schultz told CNN host John Roberts. McCain's policies, Schultz said, "fit the description, there's no question about that. ... John McCain has no end game in Iraq. ... (He) is saber rattling with Iran. ... The man is a warmonger."

John Roberts noted that, "Obama didn’t quite condemn the remarks," even if the Obama campaign has denied the substance of the remarks. My sources tell me that CNN is inviting Schultz onto the show several more times today.

Why is John Roberts, a credible journalist, allowing this guy on his show? Why is CNN making the editorial decision to give this guy a platform to launch his attacks? And why won't Barack "New Politics" Obama call for his supporters to act with respect and honesty?

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | CNN | John McCain | Media Bias — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:02am on Nov. 30, 2007 Add Another Democrat To The YouTube List

By Dan McLaughlin

I can't find it on the web, but this morning's NY Daily News interviewed the guy who asked the sanctuary cities question at the YouTube debate. He's been a registered Democrat for 22 years, voted for Dinkins and hoped the question would hurt Rudy.

Have we yet uncovered evidence that any of the questioners were actually Republicans?

Posted at 10:17am on Nov. 30, 2007 Why does it make a difference?, you ask rhetorically

By Vladimir

Disclaimer: This is my first Liberals in the Mist diary.

What difference does the CNN/youtube debacle make? After all, these guys want to be President of the United States; if they can't handle a few hot questions, whatever the source, how can they possibly handle the job?

Well, good point. The successful candidate is going to have to handle a lot higher tougher questions than those.

But it's not about the questions and answers in some silly debate. It's about the integrity, or the lack thereof, of the electoral process, and the Democrats' and CNN's apparent lack of respect for same. This is not a threat to Republicans or to the conservative movement, it is a threat to our collective freedom. I am frankly shocked and amazed that liberals don't share conservatives' outrage.

more...

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Posted at 2:09pm on Nov. 29, 2007 Why I did not watch the CNN/YouTube thing.

So this is politics?

By Mark Kilmer

I did not watch the CNN/YouTube debate last night. If you managed to sit through it, God bless you, but that sort of thing does not resemble the politics which drew me toward the process.

But I suppose I owe you an explanation.

WHY I DID NOT WATCH THE CNN/YOUTUBE GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE.

* I'd just completed my radiation treatment regimen for throat cancer, and I had more pressing concerns than surveying twaddle. I suppose Clean House was on Style Channel – it always is when I am flipping through – but Bruckner's Symphony no 3 in D minor, the one Wagner really liked, by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Hartmut Haenchen had just arrived via USPS earlier. And there's something to be said for our mail carrier. She's… better looking than Rudy Giuliani.

* I had heard that Ron Paul were going to be there, and I wasn't in the mood for a cipher. (Straight talk? Oh, right.)

* I'd heard the same of Dunc and Trancredo. I have nothing against middle-aged guys with long records of exemplary public service playing a little to their vanities, but the key modifier is "a little." Not a lot. It's time to move on, gentlemen.

* I don't much care to watch a lefty blue jean heiress, Anderson Cooper, pretend to be objective or to be a newsman. (His mommy is Gloria Vanderbilt.)

Read On…

Posted in 2008 | Anderson Cooper | CNN | youtube — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:15am on Nov. 29, 2007 Speechifying General Was on Hillary's Steering Committee

CNN employs YouTube, but not Google.

By Leon H Wolf

So the folks at CNN selected a question from a retired general with a pretty impressive service record to question them all on whether "don't ask, don't tell" should be dropped. The first candidate to answer was Duncan Hunter, who gave a pretty clear "No" answer (it took the full time, but was still pretty unequivocally "No.") At this point, I was distracted by something in the house, so I didn't catch all the answers, but I did also hear one of the other candidates say something to the effect of "No, because it's working." Then CNN cut to the guy, who was in the audience, whereupon he inexplicably said that he "didn't get an answer," and then was allowed to speechify for a longer period of time than any of the candidates got to answer any question.

Turns out, via our commenter smagar, that this guy is on Hillary's steering committee.

Way to go, CNN. Way to display journalistic competence and put to rest all those accusations of bias.

Oh, yeah, Ron Paul is a scumbag butcher-apologizing moron. I was wrong: he's no better than most of his supporters, except that he uses less four-letter words.

UPDATE (by Dan McLaughlin): Anderson Cooper says he didn't ask and should have told:

Hilarious, really, that a Hillary campaign official would plant a question...criticizing a policy enacted by Hillary's husband.

Posted in 2008 | CNN | Media | Media Bias | Media Incompetence — Comments (64)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:33am on Nov. 18, 2007 I Am Thinking Of Two Words

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

The first is "curious." The second is "omission":

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared for a battle with her Democratic rivals at the CNN-sponsored debate on Thursday night. She did not have much to fear from the postdebate round table.

Among the experts trotted out by CNN to comment was James Carville, a Democratic strategist and CNN commentator who is also a close friend of Mrs. Clinton and a contributor to her campaign.

Mr. Carville's presence aroused the fury of rivals and bloggers. They called it a conflict of interest and criticized CNN.

"Would it kill CNN to disclose that James Carville is a partisan Clinton supporter when talking about the presidential race?" Markos Moulitsas wrote on his liberal blog, Daily Kos. Mr. Moulitsas drew hundreds of comments.

Tom Reynolds, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, said: "What you saw last night lacked full disclosure. The average viewer out in middle America may not know the inside-the-Beltway connection."

A CNN executive conceded that the cable channel should have more fully disclosed Mr. Carville's past and that it was discussing how to handle such situations.

The criticisms were among a series against CNN for how it managed the debate, a two-hour event in Las Vegas that ran nearly 15 minutes late. Viewers criticized segments like the opening, when candidates bounded onto the stage in a style reminiscent of a sports event.

Voters and commentators wrote online about how the audience cheered and booed, the way the CNN hosts reframed audience questions and whether it was correct to demand yes-or-no answers to complex questions.

Maria Luisa Parra-Sandoval, a student who asked Mrs. Clinton whether she preferred diamonds or pearls (Mrs. Clinton answered "both"), said she had prepared a list of more serious questions but had been directed by CNN to ask her trivial question.

More here. And so it goes with our punditry class. We are about to enter into one of the most consequential Presidential elections in recent history, one that will help shape the nature of the war on terrorism in which we are engaged. Meanwhile, one of the most powerful and influential news organizations out there has decided to stack its commentariat deck in favor of Hillary Clinton, not be upfront about it and tell audience members to ask her trivial questions about whether she prefers diamonds or pearls instead of asking her about, oh, more important matters.

Gosh. And people are somehow still surprised that the Blogosphere has risen up as an alternative source of news and information.

Posted in 2008 | CNN | Hillary Clinton | Media Bias | Not Coming Clean — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:22pm on Nov. 14, 2007 CNN goes where Whoopi won't

By Soren Dayton

Yesterday a shocking video came out. A Republican activist -- one of those blue-haired ladies at the county party -- called Hillary Clinton a "b*tch".

Unheard of.

So what does CNN do? They attack John McCain and try to manufacture outrage.

Rick Sanchez asks "Is John McCain done?" What? Erick here at Redstate loved it. Every GOP activist that I talked to laughed. It probably helped McCain.

But CNN needed outrage. They tried to manufacture it. So who do they invite to perform outrage on cue? Whoopi Goldberg, the brilliant political analyst and actor, Sanchez asks her opinion "as a woman." But even she won't play along:

I'm not taking offense from John McCain's response

However, that is not enough to stop a reporter on a rampage.

No wonder Americans distrust the press.

Posted in 2008 | CNN | John McCain | Media | Rick Sanchez — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:46am on Mar. 21, 2007 Rush v. Ahnuld Through the Eyes of CNN

Uh, CNN Does Have A Smaller Audience Than Rush

By Erick

Unhappy with the fact that Rush Limbaugh has a bigger audience between 12pm and 3pm than it does, CNN has tried for years to discredit him. Behold their latest attempt, in which they misuse a quote of Arnold Schwarzenegger's to proclaim Rush Limbaugh totally irrelevant and "a myth."

Arnold, on NBC's Today Show, was asked about Limbaugh calling Arnold a closet Democrat. Arnold's response was, "Limbaugh is irrelevant." The quote clearly related to Arnold doing things as Governor of California, a liberal state where, frankly, Rush's audience is in the voting minority -- Schwarzenegger can govern like a liberal now that he can't run for re-election any more. His true colors are shining through. [UPDATE: As LibertarianHawk points out, Campbell Brown also took Rush out of context when talking to Ahnuld. She equated being conservative with being Republican, something Rush did not do. Rush actually said Ahnuld ran as a conservative and has been acting like a liberal.]

CNN, though, has taken the opportunity to proclaim Limbaugh totally irrelevant to the national dialogue.

Okay, pay attention to this CNN: Rush Limbaugh has the largest audience in the United States. According to Talker's Magazine, his audience is 13.5 million listeners per week in the fall of 2006, a number that will only go up as disaffected conservatives return to him as the 2008 season heats up and the Democrats keep stumbling. The next largest radio show? That's Sean Hannity (Rush's former sub-host), who in most markets comes on right after Rush, keeping Rush's audience. To match Rush, you need to combine Neal Boortz, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt or combine the listening audiences of Sean Hannity and Michael Reagan.

Oh, if we're just going to work off the left, combine 10 Alan Colmes's or Al Franken's and 1 Randi Rhodes and you'll come close.

So, CNN, if Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant and Schwarzenegger's comment "could indicate Limbaugh's power and influence is fading," you might as well lay off the rest of your staff and turn out your lights because Rush still gets a larger audience than you.

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