Kate Gets Serious with Republicans

2008-11-03T10:44:42Z

That's right! Citizen Kate meets up with some A-list Republicans at the CNN/LA Times/Politico Debate in Simi Valley, California. I can't believe I'm finally meeting Republicans. This calls for some serious tactics so that they know Citizen Kate is serious. I want to be taken serious. It was an amazing time. I spoke with Governor Schwarzenegger and almost with Rudy. Seriously.

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Differences Between Democratic and Republican Debates

2008-10-23T15:30:07Z

Watch the show at www.theyoungturks.com

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CNN: Corrupt News Network

2008-03-21T02:07:51Z

Think back to the time when CNN was a reliable, accurate, solid source of real news. It's been awhile. Tim Rutten agrees:

THE United States is at war in the Middle East and Central Asia, the economy is writhing like a snake with a broken back, oil prices are relentlessly climbing toward $100 a barrel and an increasing number of Americans just can't afford to be sick with anything that won't be treated with aspirin and bed rest.

So, when CNN brought the Republican presidential candidates together this week for what is loosely termed a "debate," what did the country get but a discussion of immigration, Biblical inerrancy and the propriety of flying the Confederate flag?

If you can call it a "discussion".

[There are questions about whether] CNN is ethically or professionally suitable to play the political role the Democratic and Republican parties recently have conceded it.

And to simply report all news as it should be reported.

[CNN has] a special responsibility to conduct itself in a dispassionate and, most of all, disinterested fashion. When one considers CNN's performance, however, the adjectives that leap to mind are corrupt and incompetent.

Not that there's anything right with that.

When producers exercise that level of selectivity, the questions -- whoever initially formulated and recorded them -- actually are theirs.

That's where things begin to get troubling, because CNN chose to devote the first 35 minutes of this critical debate to a single issue -- immigration.

Why not immigration? Here's why not:

HERE'S what Pew found: By an overwhelming margin, Americans think the war in Iraq is the most important issue facing the United States, followed by the economy, healthcare and energy prices. [..] [M]ore than nine out of 10 Americans think something matters more than immigration in this presidential election.

That would be more than 90%. And that's not even in dog years.

CNN's most popular news-oriented personality, Lou Dobbs, has made opposition to illegal immigration and free trade the centerpiece of his neonativist/neopopulist platform. [...] His network is in a desperate ratings battle with Fox News and, in a critical prime-time slot, with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. So, what's good for Dobbs is good for CNN.

In other words, CNN intentionally directed the Republicans' debate to advance its own interests. Make immigration a bigger issue and you've made a bigger audience for Dobbs.

That's corruption...

Oh, and then there's that whole religion thing:

It's nobody's business whether a candidate believes in the virgin birth, whether God gave an oral Torah to Moses at Sinai, whether the Buddha escaped the round of birth and rebirth or whether an angel appeared to Joseph Smith.
The latter point is relevant because CNN's noxious laundering of this question through the goofy YouTube mechanism quite clearly was designed to embarrass Mitt Romney -- who happens to be a Mormon -- and, secondarily, to help Mike Huckabee -- who, as a Baptist minister, had a ready answer, and who happens to be television's campaign flavor of the month.

Conclusion:

In any event, CNN has failed in its responsibilities to the political process and it's time for the leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties to take the network out of our electoral affairs.

Let's not forget Fox. It's time to take them out, period.

Republican debates at Brave New Films

Kate Gets Serious with Republicans

Differences Between Democratic and Republican Debates

CNN: Corrupt News Network