Them's Fightin' Words!
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.)
So the non-legal question here is: Does pushing the rhetoric to the level of say, a carnival barker, succeed in getting the message across better? Or ... does name-calling, even when referring to groups that also indulge in the practice – CU has a documentary detailing how Hillary Clinton put "political ambition ahead of principle, ahead of propriety" and we all know about the "Betray Us" ad – justify it in some odd way?
In a statement to website TVNewser, Campbell brown said she was "glad" the "documentary is generating discussion among those that it portrayed."
I'm all for initiating discussion. But wouldn't it be just as good to stay above the fray in order to report on it?
As far as this writer is concerned, I don't see anything wrong with pointing out an ad or a campaign that, to score political points, might be lowering discourse or oversimplifying a complicated issue. And, yes, lord knows that the words "activist" or "interest group" are tired descriptors that barely draw our attention. But there's got to be a better way to cover groups like MoveOn and CitizensUnited than by amping up the rhetoric to that point.