CNN's Corporate, Crony, Right-Wing Bias
Recently CNN has been having their "independent" political analyst David Gergen share "research" on the trustworthiness of Team Obama claims that Romney is quite possibly hiding some very unsavory details by not releasing his tax returns, as all (other) presidential candidates always do.
Anyone who has watched CNN over the years should not be surprised that they have had a very right-friendly/corp bias. They were the network that introduced and strongly embraced likes of Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs, for example, only parting ways with them once too much controversy seriously got in the way of their marketing efforts claiming to be middle-of-the-road/unbiased.
Well, certainly Beck & Dobbs aren't at CNN any longer, but when it comes to David Gergen, he has been a mainstay of their reporting for years. And when it comes to David Gergen, Andrew Sullivan nails it:
David Gergen, Part Of The Bain Clique
You want to know what's wrong with the press corps? In a sentence:
I have a past relationship with the top partners at Bain that is both personal and financial. I have worked with them in support of nonprofit organizations such as City Year. I have given a couple of paid speeches for Bain dinners, as I have for many other groups. I was on the board of a for-profit child care company, Bright Horizons, that was purchased by Bain Capital. It was a transaction with financial benefits for all board members and shareholders, including me.
You know what's even more wrong?
This very connection prompted CNN to ask Gergen to do some reporting on Bain. And - surprise! - Gergen simply ignores the key evidence on the table: Romney's own sworn testimony that he kept involved in Bain activities and attended Bain company board meetings and remained CEO, sole owner and chairman of Bain all the way through till 2002. If you own a company, benefit from its profits, and are paid a salary, declaring that you had left it is an untrue SEC filing. Which is a felony.
Just as so many of Washington's media elites could not bring themselves to indict their friends and business partners for war crimes - even though the evidence was overwhelming - so now buck-rakers like Gergen, knee deep in corporate cash, defend the men who helped them get rich. Gergen is part of the problem, not the solution.
Anyone who has watched CNN over the years should not be surprised that they have had a very right-friendly/corp bias. They were the network that introduced and strongly embraced likes of Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs, for example, only parting ways with them once too much controversy seriously got in the way of their marketing efforts claiming to be middle-of-the-road/unbiased.
Well, certainly Beck & Dobbs aren't at CNN any longer, but when it comes to David Gergen, he has been a mainstay of their reporting for years. And when it comes to David Gergen, Andrew Sullivan nails it:
David Gergen, Part Of The Bain Clique
You want to know what's wrong with the press corps? In a sentence:
I have a past relationship with the top partners at Bain that is both personal and financial. I have worked with them in support of nonprofit organizations such as City Year. I have given a couple of paid speeches for Bain dinners, as I have for many other groups. I was on the board of a for-profit child care company, Bright Horizons, that was purchased by Bain Capital. It was a transaction with financial benefits for all board members and shareholders, including me.
You know what's even more wrong?
This very connection prompted CNN to ask Gergen to do some reporting on Bain. And - surprise! - Gergen simply ignores the key evidence on the table: Romney's own sworn testimony that he kept involved in Bain activities and attended Bain company board meetings and remained CEO, sole owner and chairman of Bain all the way through till 2002. If you own a company, benefit from its profits, and are paid a salary, declaring that you had left it is an untrue SEC filing. Which is a felony.
Just as so many of Washington's media elites could not bring themselves to indict their friends and business partners for war crimes - even though the evidence was overwhelming - so now buck-rakers like Gergen, knee deep in corporate cash, defend the men who helped them get rich. Gergen is part of the problem, not the solution.