The Blog @ Spolitics

CNN’s Shades of Truth

Anyone who believes media outlets simply report facts seriously underestimates the editorial power they exercise. Not only do they choose what to report in the first place (as opposed to what stories to kill) where to report them (front page or last) and how often and in what detail to cover the story, but in addition to all that — and perhaps more importantly — they frame the story. They “set up” what you’re about to see or put it in “context.” In doing so, they can (and often do) leave out facts that don’t fit into their narrative and add comments to shade what you do see.

CNN (via Hot Air) provides a choice example of this. First, the original report:

The only fact here is that Bush walked by world leaders without shaking their hands, while others were shaking hands. But CNN’s Rick Sanchez puts it in context for us: it’s sad; Bush is unpopular; he’s being snubbed, maybe as retribution for all his years of bullying. Sanchez then tries to legitimize his commentary by backing it up with Google hits as if that’s proof.

But how truthful was it:

Kudos to CNN for correcting Sanchez’s bogus report, but unfortunately as the saying goes (and their follow-up notes) a lie can travel halfway round the world before the truth even gets its pants on. Since Sanchez’s report, if you Google Bush and bully now you get over 6 million hits. You can bet the story of Bush getting snubbed will live on.

That said, (putting a little twist on Ed’s idea), if you Google Sanchez and hack you get 1.56 million hits. But don’t expect Sanchez to run a story on that.

S&P Down 25% Since Obama Elected

The S&P had shed over 250 points since Barack Obama was elected President — a drop of over 25%. That’s what you get when you elect someone who campaigned on the exact same policies that led to the Great Depression. But hey… it is change.

Anatomy of an Obama Voter

It’s not that Obama’s supporters are totally uninformed; they know all the dirt and gossip on Sarah Palin — even the stuff that’s made up. They know about McCain’s slip-ups, too. They just don’t seem to know any of the dirt on Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

As part of promoting a documentary entitled How Obama Got Elected about the media’s biased coverage during the ‘08 election, conservative commentator John Ziegler commissioned Zogby International to conduct a poll testing the knowledge of Obama’s supporters:

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions:

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet…..

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Ziegler’s point isn’t that this reflects on Obama’s supporters, as much as the fact that the media spent a lot more time and effort carrying damaging stories about McCain and Palin while ignoring those about Obama and Biden.

Here are some clips. My favorite part is their reaction to the question about which candidate won their first election by tossing their competition off the ballot.