Tag Archives: CNN

This Is TeaNN

CNN has been struggling in the ratings recently and is undergoing some kind of identity crisis. Their tagline is “the most trusted name in news” so people scratched their heads some when they hired Red State editor Erick Erickson for their news team. CNN solidified their aspirations to be Fox-lite by hiring the Tea Party Express’s Dana Loesch. I don’t know who’s in charge of CNN’s web content but two recent stories caught everyone’s eye:

“Are whites racially Oppressed?”

One piece of evidence for their thesis: Rush Limbaugh thinks so.

The day before, this column appeared on CNN’s website:

“My Take: The Bible really does condemn homosexuality”

I didn’t see any articles on whether the Bible really does condemn shrimp, working on Saturday or getting tattoos.

James O’Keefe’s Rube Goldberg Plan To Embarrass CNN

ACORN faker James O’Keefe is back in the news with a plan so bizarre I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it. O’Keefe planned to “seduce” on-camera a CNN correspondent to prove she was trying to show him in a bad light. (I KNOW! Right?)

A conservative activist known for making undercover videos plotted to embarrass a CNN correspondent by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating “palace of pleasure” and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show.

Apparently O’Keefe is involved in some kind of music video. He’s promoting a right-leaning band and CNN was covering the story. O’Keefe requested the CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau meet him in person to discuss the story. The plan was to lure her onto a boat and hit on her, while recording the interaction.

Santa told Boudreau that O’Keefe planned to “punk” her by getting on a boat where hidden cameras were set up. Boudreau said she would not get on the boat and asked Santa why O’Keefe wanted her there.

“Izzy told me that James was going to be dressed up and have strawberries and champagne on the boat, and he was going to hit on me the whole time,” Boudreau said.

A short time later, O’Keefe emerged from a boat docked behind the house. In that brief conversation, Boudreau told O’Keefe that he did not have permission to record her, and reminded him that the meeting was solely to discuss the upcoming music video shoot, and he had never mentioned that he wanted to tape their meeting.

Check this out – it’s a list of the props they planned to have on the boat:

Why a boat? I assume so she couldn’t leave easily. I have no idea why they thought this would embarrass CNN. Wouldn’t they have video of Boudreau looking really uncomfortable and trying to leave?

Here’s how he explained the plan to his co-plotters.

According to the document, O’Keefe was to record a video of the following script before Boudreau arrived: “My name is James. I work in video activism and journalism. I’ve been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: they want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort….

“Instead, I’ve decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I’m going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I’m going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.

“Please sit back and enjoy the show.” Boudreau, who has won multiple awards for her investigative reporting, called the comments “ridiculous.”

This sounds really sinister. What exactly was O’Keefe going to do with Boudreau once they got her on the boat?

Will Wolf Blitzer Take Lou Dobb’s Seat On The Crazy Train?

Because it sure looks like he’s auditioning for the role.

On CNN this afternoon, Wolf Blitzer really antagonized Col. John Galligan (Ret.), the civilian attorney of suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, demanding that Galligan explain how he could “represent someone accused of mass murder.”

Some days I find it amazing that the U.S. has lasted so long, given the fact that every time tragedy strikes people are ready to toss out the Constitution.  Hasan’s day in court is more about us, about who we are as a nation, then about him.  And Wolf Blitzer knows it, which makes his statement sensationalism for sensationalism sake.  CNN had better find an identity soon.  Their midlife crisis has become painful to watch.

Good thing Col. Galligan understands what we stand for.  He took on Wolf and won.

I fully appreciate the importance of ensuring that everybody has a fair trial.  The rights that I’m asking be accorded to Major Hasan are the rights that service members live and die for.

Galligan: 1 bazillion, Blitzer: nothing.

At this point, Blitzer should have backed down, instead he went all Lou Dobbs:

“I’m sure he will get a much fairer hearing than those 13 Americans who were brutally gunned down the other day. I’m sure he will get all of the rights that are applied by the military code of justice.”

WTF?  Talk about a petulant, childish comeback designed to achieve nothing.  And Galligan calls him out for the win.

“The difficulty that I have, of course, is when people end discussions with me with references like the one that you just made.”

Here, here, Col. Galligan.

Birthers Causing A Problem…For CNN?

CNN’s Lou Dobbs has been promoting birther conspiracies on his CNN and radio show and CNN has repeatedly debunked him. It’s apparently becoming a problem for CNN (they should be embarrassed).

In the wake of Lou Dobbs’ repeated claims on the July 15 edition of his radio show that President Obama needs to “produce a birth certificate” and that Obama’s birth certificate posted online has “some issues,” several of Dobbs’ CNN colleagues as well as other members of the media have debunked Obama birth certificate theories, often ridiculing those who embrace such theories as “nut jobs” who advance “ludicrous” claims that are “more conspiratorial than factual.” Indeed, according to the Los Angeles Times, CNN distanced itself from Dobbs’ comments. Reporter James Rainey wrote: “[O]ne CNN employee reminded me several times that Dobbs’ most pointed assertions were made on his radio program, which is unconnected to CNN.”

Nonetheless, Dobbs has continued to repeat the “birther” claims on both CNN and his radio show, stating on the July 20 edition of his CNN program that the birth certificate questions offered by “passionate supporters” “won’t go away because they haven’t been dealt with, it seems possible to, straightforwardly and quickly,” and saying on the July 21 edition of his CNN show, “We had people, including reporters from the LA Times, calling up because I referred to this. … Instead of calling the White House to ask why they didn’t do it, they’re calling me to ask why I said I don’t know what the reality is. No one does.” Additionally, on the July 21 edition of his radio show, Dobbs criticized “certain quarters of the national liberal media that are just absolutely trying to knock down the issue of President Obama’s birth certificate,” stating that they are “focused on being subservient and servile to this presidency rather than being inquisitive and doing their jobs with, you know, the White House.”

Why is this guy getting paid on a supposed news channel?

Jon Stewart does a funny takedown of Dobbs:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
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