Thursday, March 24, 2005
CNN = Christian News Now?!?
Perhaps I should be sorry that I broke my boycott of CNN but on some piquant level, I'm glad I tuned in to watch how low that sorry-ass network has sunk. They're down on their knees, certainly. Praying for better ratings, perhaps, or preparing to receive the host of some hieratic phallus.
When I awoke today and saw the news that the US Supreme Court refused to hear arguments on the Schiavo case, I tuned in CNN to see what kind of noise they were making. From what I'd been reading around the blogosphere, CNN (and the rest of cable/network television news) had put themselves firmly on the wrong side of the issue - at least as far as polled Americans feel about this case and I tuned in to CNN with a kind of I-told-you-so glee.
James Wolcott clued me in how bad things had gotten at CNN with his report of CNN correspondant Bob Franken reporting in Florida. I missed that episode but I caught Franken and another reporter giving exclusive coverage to the right to life extremists with unashamed and appalling bias. On the screen rants some idiot preacher pleading with Jeb Bush to intervene stormtrooper-like to save Terri Schiavo, saying "if this was an african-american person who was being denied the right to attend a school or eat at a lunch counter, wouldn't we demand that the governor intervene?"
These people are shameless (i.e. Tom DeLay calling Michael Schiavo "a terrorist") in their willingness to twist the truth and indulge hate rhetoric to suit their agenda but CNN is especially venal in its genuflection to these nutjobs.
That report was followed immediately by yet another "lookee here" for Ashley Smith and the obligatory hosanna for "The Purpose Driven Life".
I'm not sure DC Media Girl is entirely correct that CNN is trying to outFox Fox but that CNN is doing what it can to capture the narrow demographic of the rabid evangelical right.
When I awoke today and saw the news that the US Supreme Court refused to hear arguments on the Schiavo case, I tuned in CNN to see what kind of noise they were making. From what I'd been reading around the blogosphere, CNN (and the rest of cable/network television news) had put themselves firmly on the wrong side of the issue - at least as far as polled Americans feel about this case and I tuned in to CNN with a kind of I-told-you-so glee.
James Wolcott clued me in how bad things had gotten at CNN with his report of CNN correspondant Bob Franken reporting in Florida. I missed that episode but I caught Franken and another reporter giving exclusive coverage to the right to life extremists with unashamed and appalling bias. On the screen rants some idiot preacher pleading with Jeb Bush to intervene stormtrooper-like to save Terri Schiavo, saying "if this was an african-american person who was being denied the right to attend a school or eat at a lunch counter, wouldn't we demand that the governor intervene?"
These people are shameless (i.e. Tom DeLay calling Michael Schiavo "a terrorist") in their willingness to twist the truth and indulge hate rhetoric to suit their agenda but CNN is especially venal in its genuflection to these nutjobs.
That report was followed immediately by yet another "lookee here" for Ashley Smith and the obligatory hosanna for "The Purpose Driven Life".
I'm not sure DC Media Girl is entirely correct that CNN is trying to outFox Fox but that CNN is doing what it can to capture the narrow demographic of the rabid evangelical right.
