Spin, Spin, Spin... Goddamn CNN

[Flubadubya]

I know, before you tell me "You shouldn't be watching it", I'll grant that you are probably right. However, it is important to note just how outright devious the media has become in its capacity to shape (more precisely, distort) public opinon, and we ought to be at least aware to what extent this is going on.

Two stories covered this morning were spun into nearly complete fabrication, and it was just sickening. The first was about a lesbian couple who split up and a custody battle over their child that ensued. The second was about the preacher in N. Carolina who excommunicated the democrats. Bill Hemmer was making GREAT efforts to exonerate the preacher, believe it or not!

I'll try to make these long stories short. First, it was Maria Hinojosa who covered the lesbian couple story. The gist of it was that the couple split up, the birth mother moved away from Vermont where she was going to be forced to share custody by VT law. She went to Virginia, (became straight all of a sudden BTW), got a conservative lawyer who called the partnering an "unnatural relationship", etc. The birth mother claimed that her "Christian" values just could not allow her previous partner to be a part of her child's life any longer. :eyes: The real jab was in the conclusion, however, when Hinojosa made her "wrap-up" statement. She said something like "Well, if you think things can get bad in a heterosexual custody case, you have never seen anything as ugly as a gay custody case can get." No bias here, eh?! Moreover, there was nothing in the story to support this conslusion... nothing! The story certainly was slanted such that there was NO sympathy for the grieved partner though, I guarantee. I can just imagine the "typical viewer" after this one musing, "Hmm, things can get pretty bad in heterosexual cases... society sure doesn't need queers messing it up more making it even worse. Think of those poor children. Gasp!" I truly believe that was the intended affect.

Secondly, Bill Hemmer is claiming that the preacher in N. Carolina also threw out members who voted for Bush, but gave NO corroborating evidence except for an interview with some poor old inarticulate chump who said he had been kicked out because he voted for John Kerry and the church clerk told him he was being kicked out for supporting abortion and homosexuality. Hemmer then said it was all a big mistunderstanding and read and displayed a statement by the preacher who claimed that his actions were in no way political. Hemmer did ask the "good old boy" if the preacher had indeed kicked out Bush voters too, and the man said very meekly, "Well, yes sir." Period. No other explanation, neither from the church member or from Hemmer as to who these Bush voters were and why they too were supposedly "kicked out".. NONE! Want to bet they were the forty who walked out in protest? Those who walked out were then probably deemed by the preacher to be "kicked out". The saddest thing about the whole dog and pony show was Hemmer's attitude about it. He was just chortling and beaming as he stuck the knife into this poor old interviewee guy and made his case for that poor, misunderstood preacher. His comment was, "Well, if you have Bush voters AND Kerry voters being kicked out, how can we call this political?" Just too much. I really want to hear the real story now. In the meantime though, just think what impression Hemmer left (intentionally) in the minds of his viewers... RIGHT - the preacher did nothing wrong! :grr:

Sorry for the lengthy rant, but DAMN... we are completely screwed. There is NO ONE left in our court. NO ONE!!! Screw CNN, Bill Hemmer and all the rest of the irredeemable whores that run mainstream media! :grr: :mad: :grr:

[FizzFuzz]

1. And after a bunch of us wrote some very powerful letters in response

to CNN's on air question: What is the Biggest Threat to Democracy? Send us your opinions.

Right. They sure have taken educated advice to heart. Not.

Oops I should probably include that thread address:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3615212

Interestingly, BigBearJohn asks at the bottom of the thread what CNN's response might be. I think we have our answer here.....

[Agnomen]

2. rant to CNN!

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/dotcom/

[Flubadubya]

6. Thanks for the reminder...

I am simply going to send them the text of my post here. I think I summed it up pretty well... even THEY ought to understand where I'm coming from and why I'm pissed off.

[still_one]

9. no, ranting will not do any good

DO NOT WATCH THEM

the sooner we get a progressive channel the better

In the meantime get your news from alternative sources

It is a known fact that the talking point CNN uses are from drudge, who gets his talking points from the right wing echo chamber

the sooner you stop watching them, the better off you will be

cnn is in fact much worse than fox. fox you know where they are coming from, while at cnn they try to pretend they are objective

please note that cnn is owned by time/warner/aol. That should tell you everything

[Atman]

3. The NC bit was disgraceful

I was seething! My wife (who puts on CNN for an hour before work each morning -- I'm still mostly cable-news-free since The Schiavo-Pope Roadshow) hadn't heard of this story. I was chomping at the bit, waiting for Hemmer to actually dig into it. He was an absolute disgrace. The quote about republicans being kicked out, too, just SCREAMED for more explanation, but instead, Hemmer just used it as a "see, you're wrong" moment. Bill, this wasn't about the reverend kicking out DEMOCRATS, it was about kicking out KERRY SUPPORTERS. Did it even occur to your pretty little Ken Doll mind to ask if the republicans who were kicked out happened to be Kerry supporters? It DID happen, and a lot more than the rigged vote tabulators would indicated!

CNN played the tape of the sermon in which he DID, IN FACT, tell his parishioners that they would have to leave the church if they supported Kerry. Period. There wasn't any "misunderstanding," it was clear as day. Yet, Hemmer did his damnedest to make sure the reverend was shown in a sympathetic light.

[me b zola]

11. disgraceful is an understatement!

I saw weenie boy pull that boner. :grr:

[Gloria]

24. Old Bill Hemmer was on the cover of the Friday magazine/rag

that comes with the local Gannett paper. He has MIDWESTERN VALUES, that was the big headline. Note that it was written by the Entertainment dept.
What a dipshit!

[emulatorloo]

4. CNN Election 2004 - Spread Bush's Lies, Don't Show John Kerry Talking

It was clear to me during election 2004 that CNN has declared war on Democrats.

Bush was given unlimited airtime.

When Bush gave a speech, his quotes were cherry-picked so that the ones where he sounded most articulate and reasonable were shown ad infinitum.

When Kerry gave a speech, his quotes were cherry-picked so that his most inarticulate ones were shown. Kerry had plenty of strong sound bites in his stump speeches, but you would never know it from CNN coverage.

The other strategy was to show Kerry speaking w/o sound as the 'anchor' poorly summarized what he said -- usually woefully misrepresenting it, and then cutting to some Bush SoundBite where Bush lies about Kerry's Position etc.

[Wright Patman]

5. I see it a little differently

and I am nominally a member of an SBC congregation, although I have voluntarily stopped going there since our pastor became basically a clone of this guy. I would daresay there are thousands of them all over the South at this point.

Hemmer just emphasized the legalistic nature of modern-day SBC "Churchianity" wherein fallible pastors and their memberships decide who or who is not "worthy" of the favor of God.

The actual New Testament, OTOH, outlines the "grace of God" which is "unmerited favor" toward "sinful man." Hemmer did no favor to Southern Baptists here.

All you have to do to relive the antebellum era right before the Civil War is to visit any rural SBC church in the South. They know they can't preach about blacks as being the 'Emmanuel Goldsteins' of the day so they have switched the rhetoric to gays and abortionists and now even stem cell researchers. But they always need someone to hate. Of course, they wind up saying, God will love these execrable and abominable creatures if only they will repent.

But, the congregation looks around at each other (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), we know that's not gonna happen in most cases, so HATE ON!

[Flubadubya]

8. I have no idea what church "doctrine" Hemmer used...

to make his case. We were not "privy" to his machinations. He did not make anything clear except the fact that he intended for his audience to get the message that what the preacher did was not political and was completely within the bounds of his "rights" as a preacher to do. Still spin... no matter how you "spin" it!

[Kansas Wyatt]

7. Hemmer is officially a propaganda whore wearing a Rovian Badge...

For his Nationalist Rethuglican Propaganda soothing and pandering.

Also did not care for the comment from the woman on CNN who reported about North Korea and asked, "Is a pre-emptive strike in order." Did all of these alleged reporters come from the Rovian Educational Camps?

[noamnety]

10. Isn't it ironic in the lesbian couple case

That the one who made it ugly was the one who suddenly got religion? But the conclusion is that the lesbian nature of the relationship was the source of the ugliness. Go figure.

[Dinger]

12. I Saw That Little Pissface Make That Comment This Morning

Pathetic. I'll send a major rant, just on principle.
What a stupid sonofabitch!

[Flubadubya]

13. CNN is about to replay the Lesbian parent story...

if anyone can stomach watching. Daryn Kagin is on now and says that the story is coming up again in the next fifteen minutes or so. It is about 11:15 ET right now.

It really might be worth the watch just to see how the media is falling into (goose) step with helping create the "gay scapegoat" model that the Fundy Christian Right is pushing now.

[Al-CIAda]

14. You are correct, The media is GONE...and dems are out to lunch as well.

We're screwed.

[cestpaspossible]

15. It's not that you shouldn't watch - YOU SHOULDN'T PAY

you shouldn't be subsidizing this propaganda, and that's exactly what you're doing if you are paying for CNN - whether you watch it or not.

[Flubadubya]

16. It's part of a package deal...

You don't get cable TV without CNN in the line up. I don't think I can petition the company to just exclude CNN.

Nonetheless, I do think it is important to see what MSM is saying and doing. It's awfully damned frustrating most of the time, but as the old saying goes... "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer"... (or something to that effect). :crazy:

[cestpaspossible]

17. Yeah I know. It's a matter of priorites

Is it more important to have access to the Lifetime network et al, or is it more important to not be one of the people bankrolling the propaganda that is destroying our country. It's your choice, I've made it clear how I feel about it.

[Bridget Burke]

20. Lifetime network?

Yes, only us silly chicks watch cable.

What about the Daily Show? Are you 100% pure in everything you do?

[cestpaspossible]

23. OK, I shoulda said Lifetime and Spike et al

you got me


TDS:
www.comedycentral.com
www.crooksandliars.com
etc

I do miss The Daily Show, I admit it.

Am I 100% pure in everything I do? Absolutely, just ask my ex-wife, she will confirm that I am perfect in every way. :smoke:

[annabanana]

21. It's the only way to get C-Span... where we can

watch the sh*t go down.

[cestpaspossible]

22. www.cspan.org

by the way, I cancelled my basic package, but I still get Free Speech TV

[suegeo]

18. Hemmer reminds me of a little kitty-kat

Mew mew. Where's my mommy? Mew mew. Aren't I cute. Mew mew. I wish my little kitty eyes would open so I could see. Mew mew.

[flordehinojos]

19. perhpas someone ought to send bill hemmer (and soledad o'brien for that

matter) toothpaste and a toothbrush, along with some mouthwash, so they can wash out their mouths every time they lie, lie, lie on the t.v. newscast.