But when they start misquoting public figures to make them look better for readers who might be fans of theirs, they’ve crossed that important line between timidity and servitude.

Remember when Sarah Palin told Katie Couric that she read “all” the newspapers?  One of the most well-documented moments of the campaign?  Well, CNN, and particularly Political Ticker producer Alexander Mooney conveniently forgets what she said.  Instead they’re quoting her as saying “Um of them” rather than “all of them.”

In a new Political Ticker post where they farm Palin’s powderpuff interview complaining about the media with a conservative host, they don’t just misquote her, but also pull one of my favorite tricks.  They say her now-infamous interview with Katie Couric “appeared to go poorly.”  No, not that it went poorly, which the entire planet knows it did, but it merely “appeared” to go poorly — the implication being, the interview actually went quite well… but appearance and perception threw it all out of whack.

But hey, I guess printing that something “appeared” such a way is one step above printing that “some people said” it was that way, which used to be the industry’s standard dead-fish-code for not taking a stand.  Check out this double whammy:

Palin also faulted the McCain campaign for agreeing to a series of sit-downs with Couric after the first one appeared to go so poorly.

During one of those follow-up interviews, Palin took heat for appearing to be unable to name the newspapers or magazines she reads: “Um of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years,” was the Alaska governor’s response.

No, it wasn’t.

What’s that?  Maybe they didn’t misquote her?  Maybe there is some sort of debate about whether she said “All of them” or “Um of them”?  Well, aside from the fact that doing a google search for her name and that quote brings up only a single page — CNN’s ticker post with the misquote — there also happens to be this pesky viral video, which doesn’t lie to soften its impact for an audience:

Related posts:

1. Palin Claims Couric “Annoyed” Her, Was “Irrelevant” Sarah Palin is just so much smarter than Katie Couric,...
2. Sarah Palin finds Indiana Helps Her Focus on Alaska Click here for a newspaper clip of this article. Alaska...
3. When Putin Rears His Head… Sarah Palin warned us during her interview with Katie Couric,...
4. Sarah Palin Edits Her Own Wikipedia Page? As the sexist media narrative already takes shape that neither...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Shep stands for reason against bitterness from the losing side–including many on his own network–as he says what most sensible people, including myself, know happened in these last couple of months:  “The media reflected what is happening in the nation.  It did not drive it.”  Amen, brother.

Enjoy:

Related posts:

1. Shep Smith Strikes Again: “We do not f*ing torture.” Shep Smith is my all-time favorite FoxNews employee, and he...
2. Eliot Spitzer’s Escort Revealed, MySpace Page and Photos Raided by Media The traditional media is giving us a schooling today on...
3. Does CNN Hate Barack Obama? I’ve noticed that CNN’s political coverage this year has been...
4. Joe Scarborough Under Fire At MSNBC Joe Scarborough is the host of the relatively popular show...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

But this morning, Joe got into an absurd tiff with David Schuster, who is an MSNBC reporter and was on the show acting as a guest commentator/analyst. For those of you who don’t know, Joe is a lot like Chris Matthews, only right-leaning (Matthews is left-leaning). Each of them are fairly laid back, curious guys with a genuine interest in politics and public policy. This genuine interest makes their respective shows immensely watchable.

Today, though, as often happens, Joe was going a little Right Wing on us, saying that if the president of Iraq wanted us to leave, we should, and he would be assassinated, and Joe said he didn’t care if that happened (in fact, Joe seemed to enjoy the thought). This was out of line, but in my opinion, Schuster was the one who brought up partisanship by calling Joe a Republican as if it were an insult. …okay, so maybe it is a pretty good insult these days:

But it comes on the heels of Keith Olbermann telling Scarborough to “get a shovel” (for his bullshit, you see) on national television last night, while Joe was making a legitimate claim about McCain gaining on Obama in the polls these last few weeks. If referencing polls is what qualifies as “bullshit” on MSNBC these days, I fear for the future:

And all of this seems to be a part of a larger theme, coming just a week after MSNBC hired Rachel Maddow for their third prime time TV slot along with Olbermann and Matthews, thus cementing their role as liberal antidote to Fox News. As a result, the liberals in the network seem to be far more bold and combative than they were even a few weeks ago — and that have Scarborough in their sites.

For the record, Fox news does need a liberal antidote — but not one that behaves exactly as Fox does, by suppressing viewpoints and demonizing well-meaning dissent.

I don’t always agree with Scarborough, but that’s the point. And that’s why I’m in his corner on this one.

Related posts:

1. Joe Scarborough Drops the F-bomb on Live TV Scarborough curses on TV, saying “f*ck you,” (in a non-threatening...
2. The New York Times Assassinates Chris Matthews When the New York Times speaks, people tend to listen....
3. Chris Matthews Set to Return to Ellen Chris Matthews is set to return to “Ellen” this Thursday,...
4. Rachel Maddow’s Show Hits #1 on iTunes The video podcast of her MSNBC show (’The Rachel Maddow...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No, really:

[Clinton's environmental speech] was a tour de force: so deep in the details that the propeller-heads were swooning, yet simple and compelling enough that I could follow it. On the day before his 62nd birthday, I couldn’t help cursing the 22nd Amendment, which limited Clinton to two terms. Heck, he’s still 10 years younger than McCain.

Now might be a good time to mention that Begala has been an employee of the Clintons for nearly two decades, and as a senior political correspondent for CNN during the most recent Democratic primaries (not to mention during the entire 2000 era), he was the clear architect of their unabashedly pro-Hillary bias.

After Hillary lost in the primary, Begala has been relatively scarce on CNN — apparently, he didn’t have anything left to say about the presidential race now that a Clinton wasn’t involved. (Note: CNN took so much heat for regularly featuring Begala and James Carville’s political commentary while they were paid staffers for Hillary Clinton, they briefly kicked them off the air for the final part of the primaries. Now, CNN has a massive disclaimer at the beginning of all his articles disclosing all his Clinton affiliations and promising that he’s no longer on the Clinton dole. Right.)

But now, just before the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Begala reemerges to claim that neither the Obama nor the McCain presidential tickets are likely to be good enough, and that no one should care who they choose as vice president.

This is an ominous sign for the Denver convention, as Democrats are still worried about what sorts of antics the Clintons and their rabid fans might pull. Clinton is already going to ask that her delegates are seated — it’s considered an “honorary” measure, but it will do nothing to make the party appear unified behind Obama — and Bill Clinton has been wildly unpredictable and bitter regarding his post-primary remarks about Barack Obama.

Most people think the Clintons will do all they can to help Obama win. I’m not so sure. They seem to still be considering an Obama win tantamount to a Clinton loss. And Paul Begala’s timely reemergence is not a good sign.

Related posts:

1. CNN Spends the Weekend Promoting the Clintons Last week, I wrote that the reemergence of Clinton employee...
2. Clinton Criticizes Obama for Detailing Her Record Fireworks flew today after the Obama campaign sent out a...
3. Secret Code: Hillary Wants VP? Um… yes? How about: painfully obvious code. Clinton’s speech tomorrow,...
4. Does CNN Hate Barack Obama? I’ve noticed that CNN’s political coverage this year has been...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s 25,000 people who have “signed” an online petition, sponsored by a pro-Clinton group, “VoteBooth.” And considering the fact that online petitions regularly gather hundreds of thousands of votes, coupled with the fact that 18 million people voted for Hillary Clinton during the primaries, it seems to me that 25,000 people is a remarkably low number of participants.

And, to quote a colleague of mine over at Melted Reel, “we all know how effective online petitions are, and how seriously everyone takes them…” </snark>.

CNN, of course, is taking it very seriously. How odd! An international news outlet taking time out of its busy schedule to report on the tallies of various online petitions… I wonder why CNN is so interested in Hillary for VP.

Related posts:

1. Hillary Muscles Her Way Into VP Discussion… Uninvited Well, we now know what Hillary Clinton has been up...
2. Hillary Wants Her Robert Kennedy Reference to Die (Video) The internet was set ablaze on Friday because Hillary Clinton...
3. Secret Code: Hillary Wants VP? Um… yes? How about: painfully obvious code. Clinton’s speech tomorrow,...
4. McCain takes New Hampshire, Hillary shocks Obama After all that fuss about Huckabee and Romney battling for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here’s the video — commentary below:

At first, it seemed like she had gone crazy — she had finally lost control of her already weak grip on reality, and started to publicly root for the death of Barack Obama. But it wasn’t true.

No, she didn’t go crazy until Sunday.

As of today, she is using her mouthpieces at CNN to both blame Obama for the fact that people are outraged, not her own foolishness, and also to claim that her mention of RFK had nothing to do with Obama, saying:

I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for — and everything I am fighting for in this election.

She also blamed the editor of the New York Daily News, who was nice enough to give her Op-Ed space to explain herself, and Bobby Kennedy Jr., for god’s sake, for “misinterpreting” her comments.

And obviously they were misinterpreted. No, Robert Kennedy, a man who died on his way to becoming the nominee of the Democratic party, obviously has nothing to do with Barack Obama, her opponent, who happens to be a man on his way to becoming the nominee of the Democratic party. The only possible alternative, of course, would be that she was comparing herself to RFK. So… let’s just not delve too deeply into that possibility.

No, definitely not.

Related posts:

1. Almost Tens of People Want Hillary as Vice President Okay, so it’s more than tens. It’s 25,000 people...
2. Hillary Muscles Her Way Into VP Discussion… Uninvited Well, we now know what Hillary Clinton has been up...
3. Secret Code: Hillary Wants VP? Um… yes? How about: painfully obvious code. Clinton’s speech tomorrow,...
4. CNN Reinstates its Pro-Clinton Bias For no apparent reason other than the fact that the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Nolan, the fired former host of the network’s CN8 Channel, believed that it was improper for the regional EMMY organization to nominate a figure as “partisan” as O’Reilly.

The host had this to say:

“He’s delusional,” Nolan said of O’Reilly. “He’s a man that mangles the facts. He inflates and constantly mangles the truth, and his frequent target is the ‘left-leaning’ media — the ones who do report the news fairly.”

Now, I realize that it’s only a local EMMY honor. But that’s the whole point. Why would Comcast risk their sterling reputation just to stamp out a little regional squabble?

Call Comcast: 1-800-COMCAST
Email: corporate_communications@comcast.com

Related posts:

1. Bill O’Reilly Gets Physical with Obama Camp It was the cranky-old-man shove heard ’round the world....
2. Greatest link ever: Bill Maher: “This … Greatest link ever: Bill Maher: “This isn’t what I voted...
3. Shepard Smith Dismisses Claim that Media Gave Obama the Election My all time favorite conservative news host, Shep Smith, recently...
4. Joe Scarborough Under Fire At MSNBC Joe Scarborough is the host of the relatively popular show...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It looks as though the Democratic party is starting to come together behind their presumptive nominee. Now, we can start the general election proper, which should be more interesting than it otherwise would’ve been, since both Obama and McCain have a strong appeal to independents and party moderates.

And what about CNN.com? Have they toned down their anti-Obama bias? A little bit. But you tell me if you’ve ever seen them link directly to Essence Magazine, an African American culture mag, other than today, when they’re linking to a feature about what John McCain will do to help African Americans?

I’m not saying it’s wrong for this Essence article to exist, and I’m certainly not implying that John McCain won’t do anything for African Americans. All I’m saying is, CNN has never linked to Essence before.

Related posts:

1. CNN Reinstates its Pro-Clinton Bias For no apparent reason other than the fact that the...
2. Does CNN Hate Barack Obama? I’ve noticed that CNN’s political coverage this year has been...
3. Hillary Pats Self on Back, Belittles Obama In an opportunistic visit with a largely African American church...
4. Clinton Superdelegate Says He Voted for Obama Representative Brad Ellsworth, from my home state of Indiana (and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

But I’ve been keeping tabs on CNN more closely in the past two weeks, since Barack Obama has all but locked up his place as the Democratic nominee, even by Carville’s own admission. One would think that they’d probably give a little less publicity to Senator Clinton, since she’s nearly out of the presidential picture, right?

Wrong. Let’s look at a rundown of just the last forty “blogs” on their faux-news gossip column “The Political Ticker” — and I assure you that it has been no different for the past two weeks. Here’s a graph breaking them into how favorably they reflect on a candidate (some overlap):

Number of “Positive” Hillary Posts: 7

Number of “Negative” Hillary Posts: 1

Number of “Positive” McCain Posts: 6

Number of “Negative” McCain Posts: 5

Number of “Positive” Obama Posts: 1

Number of “Photo” Obama Posts (The only posts about any candidate which deliberately have no commentary): 2

Number of “Negative” Obama Posts: 10

There you have it, folks. And the most striking thing isn’t the fact that stories which reflect negatively upon Barack Obama are those which appear most often. For me, the most striking thing is their refusal to say print anything which might make Hillary Clinton look bad. On the other hand, maybe that’s just a reflection of the fact that Obama and the GOP have stopped attacking Clinton. Most of the Ticker’s content is just inter-campaign trash talk.

What’s more, most of the time CNN uses their “Political Ticker” to back up their front-page political posting. So the bias in the ticker is equal to the bias they feature on their front page.

Let’s look at their front page, at a random time, to see what their coverage looks like. We’ll use, oh… right now as an example:

I see three political items, one of which is just a webcam feed to an Obama rally, so that’s relatively positive for Obama. The other two allow anti-Obama folks to use CNN.com’s front page as a mouthpiece for their particular views — one, in which McCain calls Obama’s foreign policy ideas of diplomacy (you know, the ones that don’t involve war) “Reckless;” and the other, which allows Geraldine Ferarro, a Clinton supporter and former Carville co-worker who has already proven herself a bigot, to slander Obama, calling him “Terribly Sexist” without foundation or examination.

And remember this all comes weeks after it became clear that Hillary Clinton would not be the Democratic nominee.

I’m not saying CNN shouldn’t report on every little piece of controversial “trash-talk” they hear in a political speech, like they do. They’re certainly allowed to do that.

What I’m saying is, readers should take their “coverage” with a grain of salt. They’ve got some cards they’re not showing.

Related posts:

1. What Obama Must Do Now Click here for a newspaper clip of this article. Regardless...
2. CNN Reinstates its Pro-Clinton Bias For no apparent reason other than the fact that the...
3. McCain takes New Hampshire, Hillary shocks Obama After all that fuss about Huckabee and Romney battling for...
4. Clinton Criticizes Obama for Detailing Her Record Fireworks flew today after the Obama campaign sent out a...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

With a sickeningly obvious tone of glee, CNN’s Mallory Simon wrote an “article” which is, literally, a detailed play-by-play of the events on Dupri’s MySpace and Facebook pages. She reports on Dupri’s Facebook ’status updates,’ and tries to psychoanalyze what was going on in Durpi’s head when she wrote them.

For example:

“Early Thursday morning, it appears Dupre realized she needed to make some changes to alter what the public would be able to know about her.”

And surely CNN’s round-the-clock profile stalking had nothing to do with that realization.  The whole article is just a big list of things like that. “Early Thursday morning,” “At 3:00pm,” and finally: “By 2:30pm, her MySpace and Facebook pages were gone.”

Yes, that’s right. Dupri was chased off the internet by tabloid journalism — and yes, CNN’s extravagance with the story is significant, because they represent one of the most heavily-trafficked news sites on the web. And Mallory Simon just sat there and watched her updates roll by, taking notes and sketching out ways to somehow make Dupri’s friend requests a legitimate story.

CNN does go out of its way to quote one actual person, though. It’s a Law Professor (oh, god) from American University (Jesus Christ). And he’s happy to inform CNN and you, the reader, that Dupri has no right to privacy and deserves no respect from the media. After all, she opened up a MySpace account — why would she ever expect that information not to be exploited for free by mainstream media outlets?

That same law professor has some snarky comments about Dupri’s interest in singing, and her frustration that people were flooding her with hate mail:

“Unfortunately, you can’t say, ‘Oh well, I didn’t want that kind of publicity, I only wanted positive publicity,’”

I wonder what kind of publicity the professor wants.

Simon even goes so far as to detail how much she loves to investigate her subjects on the internet:

“Facebook and MySpace have become one of the go-to background tools for journalists in the past couple of years, allowing members of the press to put a face to the subject of their story and find out more about them.”

Look, I’m all for open source media, fair use, and free content — I think we should all visit social networks and interact with one another. And I’m well aware that CNN is within its rights to exploit this sort of information. It’s hypocrisy I’m against. It’s the fact that CNN would probably send me a cease and desist letter if they saw their logo on my blog. And exploitation, no matter what the source, is unethical. CNN can be my guest to write any number of stories that cite MySpace and Facebook pages — as long as they’re part of actual stories.

These last two were not actual stories. They were barely tabloid stories. I hope CNN gives some of their ad revenue from this week to that poor woman, who had to close up her social media accounts (which she was using to promote herself and build an audience for her non-prostitute ventures) because of all the hate mail and spam messages CNN’s white, middle-aged demographic started to send her.

Related posts:

1. Eliot Spitzer’s Escort Revealed, MySpace Page and Photos Raided by Media The traditional media is giving us a schooling today on...
2. Does CNN Hate Barack Obama? I’ve noticed that CNN’s political coverage this year has been...
3. “Life Lock” Anti-Identity Theft CEO Becomes Identity Theft Victim Oh, this is just too good to be true. You...
4. EPA Says a Human Life is Worth $900,000 Less So, I didn’t know that the government looked at human...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.