Posted by P.J. Salvatore Sep 15th 2011 at 4:58 am in CNN, Featured Story, GOP, Tea Parties, elections 2012, media bias Yahoo’s Cutline was astonished that a news outlet would feature more than one type of voice by hosting a GOP tea party debate. The shock is palatable.
The co-hosts of Monday night’s Republican debate–CNN and the Tea Party Express–made for “one of the oddest political matches in recent memory,” “strange political bedfellows” not unlike “James Carville and Mary Matalin.”How is it “strange bedfellows” that a news outlet — and news outlets are to be objective, yes? — would feature a GOP debate hosted with a conservative grassroots movement? CNN has held Democratic debates in the past; is it really beyond the level of acceptability for them to host a debate for the other party? Is media not a fair stage for all sides? Yahoo quotes this:
But tonight’s debate from Florida goes even farther down the ethical hole. A major cable network is teaming up with a political splinter group as an (apparent) equal partner in a televised event. CNN didn’t team up with political progressives, who helped shape the 2008 presidential campaign, during that election cycle. Yet here it is proudly teaming up with the Tea Partiers (who, they keep telling us, aren’t even an identifiable group, but a shared mindset). My guess is CNN is more interested in wresting viewers from Fox than in maintaining its own credibility. It is through independence that journalists maintain our legitimacy, and our (fading) credibility. Not by sharing our outlets’ names on banners with the entities and people we are supposed to be covering. This is basic ethics: Don’t share the bed with the subjects of your journalism.
That’s notable.
Also, Martelle’s logic fails him a second time: he complains that only two parties are represented while also taking the stance that the tea party shouldn’t be represented because it’s an entity to be covered — which conflicts which his complaint that only two parties are ever represented. He suggests that the tea party is a third party, thus this would be a fulfillment of his request. But it’s a conservative group, so again, his bias is betrayed, all while complaining about bias. If Martelle intended to define irony with his remarks, he’s brilliant; if it was unintentional, he’s comedy gold.
So progressives are mad that only two parties are ever represented in a debate, they consider the tea party a “party” when it’s a movement but yet are angry that it was also included because it is conservative. The only diversity comes in the form of Establishment Progressive and Grassroots Progressive, which, if you’ve paid attention to the funding of nearly every progressive group blog cited by MSNBC, are funded by the exact same Establishment Progressive.
Big Journalism
