What they're saying
CNN (Ed Henry, no surprise) is now pushing the White House's explanation that the briefer in Baghdad "went a little too far" in asserting Iranian involvement in Iraq. (You think?)
WaPo: (The key word is today.)
And, Atrios takes on the "all options are on the table" rhetoric.
WaPo: (The key word is today.)
"We've been very careful in what we've said over the last few weeks," Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, the administration's point man on Iran, said in an appearance yesterday at the Brookings Institution.
And, Atrios takes on the "all options are on the table" rhetoric.
The only reason to state that war is on the table is because you feel it's advantageous to make a threat..
We don't hear leaders saying, "we hope to come to a trade agreement with El Salvador, but until we do all options are on the table," because we're not trying to threaten them with war.
posted by mikevotes at
1:53 PM
3 Comments:
Ed Henry is a moron. So is Barbara Starr. So is the thin-faced dude who reports from the Pentagon (Jamie something or other.) So is Joe Johns, Andrea Koppel, John Roberts, Jeff Greenfield, and the obese woman (can't think of her name but I think she's named after food.)
Frankly, other than Cafferty and occasionally Blitzer, the reporters on CNN are all stenographers for the administration who more often than not uncritically report whatever it is the administration wants them to report.
I'm not sure why this is. Are they so worried about winger complaints that they bend over backwards to seem "objective"? Are they really bad journalists who don't know any better?
I dunno, but over the past year I have noticed that the commentators and reporters on MSNBC are much more capable of cutting through administration spin and bullshit than the CNNers. Shuster, Gregory, and Olbermann are excellent. Tweety has been pretty good lately, especially on the Iraq war, the coming Iran war and the Libby case. And the commentators - like Buchanan, Wolffe, Fineman, and Barnicle - are much more likely to call the admin on its bullshit than anybody over at CNN.
I made the move and stopped watching CNN. I just can't do it anymore. It's too painful. MSNBC has its problems and the late night programing is deficient, but at least I don't have to hear Ed Henry repeat what Rove or Bartlett told him word for word.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 4:29 PM
I think the CNN people are all afraid of losing access. Their jobs are much more fungible because short of Barbara Starr, none of them really have a reputation to fall back on.
CNN does not take care of its people. They've all seen what happened to Miles O'Brien who went from show host to NASA correspondent, so I think they're afraid to rock the boat.
(You can't get into too much trouble parroting the administration.)
The guys with reputation Michael Ware, John Burns, can openly criticize the administration.
MSNBC on the otherhand pulls in all its field reporters from NBC who are pretty strong and have a network that backs them up.
Also, I think the NBC system rewards actual reporting whereas CNN promotes on access and "gets."
As for the commentators, MSNBC can be better, but CNN pulls better international interviews.
And, If you've never watched CNN international, CNNI on my cable system, it's really quite good. They show an hour at noon eastern on CNN and I always try to catch the first section.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 5:14 PM
I think the CNN people are all afraid of losing access. Their jobs are much more fungible because short of Barbara Starr, none of them really have a reputation to fall back on.
CNN does not take care of its people. They've all seen what happened to Miles O'Brien who went from show host to NASA correspondent, so I think they're afraid to rock the boat.
(You can't get into too much trouble parroting the administration.)
The guys with reputation Michael Ware, John Burns, can openly criticize the administration.
MSNBC on the otherhand pulls in all its field reporters from NBC who are pretty strong and have a network that backs them up.
Also, I think the NBC system rewards actual reporting whereas CNN promotes on access and "gets."
As for the commentators, MSNBC can be better, but CNN pulls better international interviews.
And, If you've never watched CNN international, CNNI on my cable system, it's really quite good. They show an hour at noon eastern on CNN and I always try to catch the first section.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 5:15 PM
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