All Blog Posts from Public Eye

Well, you can say this for CNN: "Campaign Killers," their special report last Wednesday on campaign ads hosted by Campbell Brown, was balanced in a certain way.

Balanced in that it managed to stir up political groups on both sides.

First out of the box on Thursday came the liberal activists, who were none too pleased to see MoveOn.org labeled as “American Insurgents.” According to the left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters:

During the November 28 CNN special Campaign Killers: Why Do Negative Ads Work?, CNN anchor Campbell Brown said: "General David Petraeus made his reputation taking on insurgents in Iraq. But when he came to Capitol Hill in September, he was confronted by American insurgents, a liberal anti-war group called MoveOn.org."

Then came the right, with a conservative-leaning group called Citizen United threatening legal action against CNN for characterizing them as a “fringe militia.”

I write to register strenuous objections to your highly unprofessional hit piece last night (Broken Government -- "Campaign Killers," hosted by Campbell Brown ) against David Bossie and Citizens United, and to demand an on-air retraction of part of it, along with corrections made in any future showings. In particular, if a retraction of the defamatory words "fringe militia" is not offered publicly by CNN, and soon, I will advise Mr. Bossie to consider legal action.

(Tip of the hat to FishbowlDC.)

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Cross-marketing and synergy are standard practices in MediaLand – like when Alec Baldwin wakes up on NBC’s “30 Rock” and just so happens to watch MSNBC morning programming, for example – but CNN has started taking some heat for what is being perceived as prizing promotion over news gathering.

Just in this space alone, this writer has noted the network’s promotional zeal, hyping up its July 23rd YouTube debate to the tune of 117 mentions of that night’s “groundbreaking” event.

Along with observing a few weeks ago that CNN was alone among the cable news networks in finding nooses to be a growing problem across America – in the same week that they were airing an investigative special called “The Noose: An American Nightmare.”

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Media criticism oftentimes boils down to a "chicken" or "egg" argument, but often at the fever pitch of those old "Less Filling, Tastes Great" ads.

That came to mind when I read the Washington Post’s Outlook section this weekend, and looked over Naomi Wolf’s piece about how young people don’t understand capital-D Democracy.

According to a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics, only 47 percent of high school seniors have mastered a minimum level of U.S. history and civics, while only 14 percent performed at or above the "proficient" level. Middle schoolers in many states are no longer required to take classes in civics or government. Only 29 states require high school students to take a government or civics course, leaving millions of young Americans in the dark about why democracy matters.

A survey released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in September found that U.S. high school students missed almost half the questions on a civic literacy test. Only 45.9 percent of those surveyed knew that the sentence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence. Yet these same students can probably name the winner of "American Idol" in a heartbeat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The “Dumbing Down of America.” Amusing Ourselves to Death. We’ve seen this movie before. It stinks, but it’s true – which, yes, twists that knife even deeper.

That sense only got worse when I saw CNN’s commercial for tomorrow night’s YouTube Republican Debate.

The motto – splashed across the TV screen – came from a Los Angeles Times headline from 4 months ago: “Where the citizen is the star!!!”

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but when it comes to the process of electing the next leader of the free world, I’d rather the candidates be the focal points – or, in CNN’s language, “the star!” – of the event.

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What’s the deal with CNN and its focus on nooses?

Allow me to ask the question a different way: Have they crossed the line from news coverage to network promotion?

Last night on CNN’s “Out in the Open” hosted by Rick Sanchez, he had a lively discussion/debate with an African-American comic who had worn a noose like a necktie as “a fashion accessory.” The segment began:

This is comedian Katt Williams. he wore a noose around his own neck on purpose, he turned it into a fashion accessory as he posed at the BET Hip-Hop awards a few weeks ago. Katt Williams is brave enough to join us to try and explain why he would do something like this.

So CNN found a comic who wore a noose “a few weeks ago” as the subject of a debate last night -- a debate rerun this morning on CNN. A little bit later, CNN aired a live discussion featuring two guests, with the caption “Noose Incidents: More Cases or More Coverage?”

This is a serious question, since copycat concerns should always be in the minds of journalists covering hate crimes and the like. But in keeping tabs on the other cable networks, I didn’t see any coverage of the Noose Crisis in America. (And a search on TVEyes showed no mention of the word “noose” today.) Which is fine, after all. It’s their prerogative and news judgment. But why the bump in CNN’s coverage? Why did they keep coming back to the topic?

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The majority of Democratic presidential candidates have been criticized – even by sympathetic soul Keith Olbermann – for their refusal to participate in a September debate to be broadcast on Fox News Channel.

It’s starting to look like boycotts may be a bipartisan trend.

The Washington Post reports today that the September GOP CNN/YouTube debate – the Democrats' one this week was all the rage, just ask CNN
– has received only two RSVPs from the Republican field: Ron Paul and John McCain.

Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney, both with dozens of videos on their YouTube channels, have not signed up. Neither have the rest of the Republican candidates, including Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.), whose "Tancredo Takes" on his YouTube channel draw hundreds of views. Sources familiar with the Giuliani campaign said the former New York mayor is unlikely to participate. Kevin Madden, Romney's spokesman, said the former Massachusetts governor has seven debate invitations over a span of 11 days in September.

"We haven't committed to any of them yet," Madden said.

In an interview Wednesday with the New Hampshire Union Leader, Romney said he's not a fan of the CNN/YouTube format. Referring to the video of a snowman asking the Democratic candidates about global warming, Romney quipped, "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman.”

Whether it's Frosty or Jim Lehrer asking the questions, these nationally-televised debates are a singular chance to reach potential voters. Candidates who give them the cold shoulder lose the opportunity to make their own case and voluntarily hand opponents the chance to misportray them.

A month ago, MSNBC’s Morning Joe news anchor Mika Brzezinski famously refused to read a story about Paris Hilton, going so far as attempting to set her news script on fire. (Unfortunately, her partner’s Bic lighter wasn’t up to the task) And in doing so, she became a YouTube celebrity, with the footage now having been viewed nearly three million times.

And yesterday, CNN’s lovable curmudgeon Jack Cafferty went so far as to – on live TV, mind you – ask/demand that the Lindsay Lohan story be removed from his teleprompter. On the grainy YouTube footage, he says “I wonder if we could get the Lindsay Lohan DUI arrest out of the teleprompter and put my script in. Is that possible?”

What’s going on nowadays?

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One final postmortem on the First-Of-Its-Kind and Groundbreaking CNN/YouTube debate from the other night.

It was called “freewheeling” and “lively." A “brave beginning." “Provocative," too. The New York Times thought it brought “freshness and spontaneity."

I’ve got another description for it: “Open-Book Test,” a point only raised – from as far as I can tell online – by Tim Russert at MSNBC.

The YouTube debate was unlike previous ones in ways catalogued exhaustively (and more enthusiastically) elsewhere, but its most overlooked trait was the fact that all the questions were available for public consumption as soon as they were uploaded. I could see them anytime leading up to the debate; you could see them. And so, critically, could the candidates and the candidates’ communications teams.

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"Do you believe America needs to declare a countrywide time-out and have a national group hug, and just think about our future for at least a few weeks quietly and without interference from politicians? Sixty-three percent of you responded that you agree it is time for that countrywide time-out."

--The always-embraceable Lou Dobbs, reporting the results of his weekend unscientific poll.

So have you heard there’s going to be a Democratic debate tonight? And one with normal people like you and me posing questions via streaming video? You haven’t? Just turn on CNN. Chances are you’ll find out before the next commercial break.

A few weeks ago, CNN was accused of “milking a story” when they parlayed an on-air argument between Wolf Blitzer and Michael Moore into a into a prime-time “Larry King Live” debate with CNN’s resident medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Was this low-cal Lincoln-Douglas the most scintillating hour of TV in recent memory? No, it wasn’t, but would I rather see people discuss the merits of American health care and Michael Moore’s approach to filmmaking than reading more from Paris Hilton’s diary? To quote Kevin Pollak from “A Few Good Men,” ‘Every day of the week and twice on Sundays.’

The critic in question, Jon Friedman of MarketWatch, made the case that Wolf Blitzer was fishing for sensational soundbytes and trying to grab a few extra eyeballs, at the expense of a probing interview:

Lately, CNN has stretched the definition of news to a nearly incomprehensible level. What has genuine news value and what is a thinly veiled ratings grab? CNN may have plenty of company here, but I expect a lot from this network.

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So have you heard there’s going to be a Democratic debate tonight? And one with normal people like you and me posing questions via streaming video? You haven’t? Just turn on CNN. You’ll find out before the next commercial break.

A few weeks ago, CNN was accused of “milking a story” when they parlayed an on-air argument between Wolf Blitzer and Michael Moore into a into a prime-time “Larry King Live” debate with CNN’s resident medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Was this low-cal Lincoln-Douglas the most scintillating hour of TV in recent memory? No, it wasn’t, but would I rather see people discuss the merits of American health care and Michael Moore’s approach to filmmaking than reading more from Paris Hilton’s diary? To quote Kevin Pollack from “A Few Good Men,” ‘Every day of the week and twice on Sundays.’

The critic in question, Jon Friedman of MarketWatch, made the case that Wolf Blitzer was fishing for sensational soundbytes and trying to grab a few extra eyeballs, at the expense of a probing interview:

Lately, CNN has stretched the definition of news to a nearly incomprehensible level. What has genuine news value and what is a thinly veiled ratings grab? CNN may have plenty of company here, but I expect a lot from this network.

Read full post…