It’s a Johnny-come-lately to group think in comparison to MSNBC, but CNN is definitely defending Barack Obama and putting Sarah Palin in the cross-hairs. Of course, some CNN personalities were always known to be on the left, like Carl Bernstein, Fareed Zakaria, Christiane Amanpour, and Jack Cafferty. While some “impartial” CNN personalities, like Lou Dobbs and Larry King, remain above the fray, others, that used to appear to be independent, are now showing their true colors, including Campbell Brown, Soledad O’Brien, and Anderson Cooper.
Campbell Brown takes issue with Palin’s tale of the Alaskan Governor’s jet. Palin put it on E-Bay. Campbell Brown pointed out that the jet had to be sold at a loss to a broker because it didn’t sell on E-Bay. What Campbell Brown doesn’t own up to is that Palin was truthful about putting the jet up for sale on E-Bay. In fact, three attempts were made to sell the plane on E-Bay, so the Palin story is very true. When no one came up with the minimum bid on E-Bay, it was sold at a loss to a broker, but at least the state of Alaska recouped some of the money put into the plane, let alone putting an end to the mounting price tag for fuel, maintenance, storage, etc., that the state was footing the bill for. Wouldn’t it be nice if CNN did a survey of all the states to see which ones possessed a luxury jet that taxpayers financed for the use of their respective governors? Or surveying which governors in recent history divested themselves of perks? Such investigative reporting might reveal the secret to Palin’s high approval ratings. Fat chance. I don’t see CNN trying to figure out why the rest of the country doesn’t support their state governors as much as Alaska supports Palin.
Soledad O’Brien has taken the lead among CNN anchors investigating Sarah Palin on the parenting front. Odd how male candidates and Hillary Clinton have never been under the gun by Soledad on the topic of parenting. Clearly Palin is being singled out. Soledad O’Brien and Campbell Brown have had to backpedal on these issues. Erica Hill, among others, has been given the task of assembling focus groups in an attempt to justify O’Brien and Brown in their wielding of the double standard.
Then there’s the “trooper-gate” story being investigated by Drew Griffin. The sound bites from this story will be circulated throughout the CNN broadcast day. The full interview of the trooper reveals nothing that would disqualify Palin from office or answer the question of whether Palin abused her power. An ex-administrator alleges that Palin fired him because he resisted firing the trooper. The ex-administrator, Walter Monegan, was first given an opportunity to transfer to another position. Instead, he chose to accept the termination and use it as a soap box to accuse Palin of interfering in personnel matters for personal reasons. So far, reports only give us a “he said/she said” view, but Campbell Brown suspects the worst, because she assumes, according to what she said to Drew Griffin, that Palin doesn’t want the state legislature to wind up their investigation prior to the election. She asked Drew Griffin if Palin had contrived any ways of postponing the resolution of the investigation until after the election. Drew Griffin said, instead, that the legislature would likely try to move up the final disclosure date to October 10th. I find the tag “trooper-gate” problematic because it suggests strongly that Palin did wrong even though the final conclusion on the matter has not been reached. I would like to suggest that “good old boys” who get ousted from power are likely to not go quietly, and those on the wrong side of Palin’s reforms in the state legislature may be reveling in this opportunity to assign a demerit to Palin.
CNN is eager to use this unresolved “trooper-gate” to poke holes in McCain’s assertion that Palin is an accomplished reformer. Uninvestigated by CNN is the whole Chicago political machine in dire need of reform that Obama would rather use as-is than shake up. CNN is straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Palin has clearly undertaken reforms that other politicians across the nation haven’t bothered to undertake. CNN could reveal why voters are prone to distrust politicians in the first place by showing the prime examples of politicians who had the power to clean things up, but didn’t. CNN shouldn’t be trying to disparage the reforms Palin has accomplished, because it sends a message to other politicians to not attempt reforms, because once one has caught the eye of the MSM for reforms, the MSM will try to tear the politician down. Voters want politicians who will undertake reforms, and we don’t want the MSM to stand in opposition to them.
As for Campbell Brown’s much-ballyhooed interview of Tucker Bounds, McCain spokesperson, regarding Palin’s command role of the Alaska National Guard, it may be worthwhile to know the role that any state governor plays in being commander-in-chief over the National Guard. However, Tucker Bounds is not the person who is likely to be the source of that information, and Brown (who knows that) wanted to run up the score on a spokesperson who was not thoroughly briefed on the matter. Bounds should have anticipated the question, yes, but Brown should have shown better sportsmanship, and perhaps asked for a referral to someone who was qualified to answer the question. Instead of locating the information by other means, CNN continues to air the same clip over again with the questions left unanswered. I suggest that CNN isn’t interested in providing an answer. They are interested only in a game of “gotcha,” where they managed to ask a question of a spokesperson that went unanswered. Also, CNN ignores that Barack Obama has never had a command role over the National Guard, so they turn a blind eye to Obama’s glaring deficiencies, not acknowledging the emperor has no clothes.
MSNBC has chosen a liberal path as a way to boost their pathetic ratings. CNN has much better ratings, and following the path of MSNBC will only erode their viewership. CNN needs to reassess their commitment to the motto “no bias, no bull.”
Buckeye RINO 