Campbell Brown on the Anti-Palin Smears
I’m not sure what I think about Campbell Brown. I’m generally unhappy with the direction CNN has gone in the last several years; the market has its own inexorable logic, I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it that a network I basically trusted back in the day is giving itself a gradual Fox News makeover. Even when I agree with the positions being presented, I still mourn the loss of actual journalism that goes along with the pursuit of loud, colorful, snarky ratings.
But that aside, I’ll say this for Brown: Several times now I’ve heard her make exactly the same “you liars need to be called on it” argument that I’ve made myself about some specific piece of high-profile B.S. As she did here:
November 7th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Perfect. Her “…crystal clear” statement is crystal clear.
A whole lot more of this over the past 8 years would have saved a whole lot of people a whole lot of grief.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
John, ultimately ratings talk, and they will trump, clear-eyed journalism. MSNBC, from its leadership on down, has looked at the model of FoxNews and their superior ratings and has gone “all in” to try to capture that same kind of idealogical bent which would instead cater to the liberal audience. They have lined up their star talking heads to reflect the left counter-weight. And with the current shift in our Country’s political leanings, it may be just the right timing for such a news/opinion channel.
When Chris Matthews can unapologetically say that his job as a journalist is to make sure the Obama presidency succeeds, that should be all we need to know about the state of journalism today, at least in the info-tainment world of cable news.
Just because a slimy guy like Sean Hannity gets big numbers doesn’t mean everyone else should sell their souls to chase the ratings.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Cable news is pretty much down to whether or not you find the talking head show of your choice entertaining or not.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I have been watching Brown for awhile now though, and I have to say she might be the best of the worst. Meaning she does call out BS, no matter who is spreading it. Kind of rare for news organizations these days.
I agree that CNN has veered to the left probably a little too much. They probably caught Obamania. But nowadays it’s all about ratings and he’s bringing in the viwers, that’s for sure.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Interesting stuff coming out about the reliability of the source that the Fox News reporter may have used to deliver some of the more extreme stories about Palin’s knowledge level. That source appears to have been a hoax, although the story may still have more developments. Palin will never be confused with a Rhodes scholar, but she likely is smarter and politically sharper than her critics would ever admit. Ultimately, being Prez or even Vice-Prez may be “above her pay grade”, but I wouldn’t discount her abilities in general.
I did enjoy the irony today, when Chris Matthews was asking a question about the Palin-Africa story to someone, and Chris himself called Africa a country! Yes, it was obviously a verbal slip, but one can see (if they allow themselves to) how anyone could look foolish if someone ever did take such a gaffe out of context and push it into the public as evidence of someone’s stupidity.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I wasn’t sure if this meant that the source the reporter used was bogus, or if this guy wasn’t even the source. It may be the latter. Regardless, I still think that once the feeding frenzy ends, a good deal of the more outlandish aspects of the story will be more mirage than meat.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:22 am
For all it’s indignation of the sleazy campaign McCain ran (liberals have short memories) this was such a glaring case of the pot calling the kettle black. The left all the way from the elite media to small and insignificant people on blogs were trashing this woman. She is what, only the second woman to be nominated as vice president? Isn’t this the party that supposedly is a champion for the advancement of minorities? Thank god she is one tough cookie and handled it all with grace and dignity way above those slinging rotten tomatoes at her.
At one point Dick Morris said the when Bill Clinton was elected president (Rhodes scholar, right?) he knew absolutely nothing about foreign affairs and his advisors had to spoon feed him every syllable of every word. Morris said Clinton was quite adept on economic matters but not foreign issues. Clinton is smart, Palin is too, he learned quickly, she would have also. Obama will be taking a crash course in many areas as well. No one is really qualified to be president, well maybe Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. This kind of feigned indignation while engaging in the exact same behavior is so common with liberals I don’t think conservatives even bother noticing it anymore.
November 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Clinton may have been green behind the ears as well, but he could still put coherent sentences together.
Palin’s demise began with the Katie Couric interview where she rambled on and on about a thousand things in one extremely long and akward sentence. That’s when people really started to say to themselves, “Whoa, wait a minute here. I don’t think this person is up to the job.” Whish is a fair observation, because she wasn’t/isn’t.
Please though, rally behind her and make her the leader of your party.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
“I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “And if there is an open door in ’12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”
Once again, it’s all in God’s hands. (*shivers*)
November 11th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
She is one of hundreds of millions or so around the world that seek their God in prayer.
People like to frame things like this as if people of faith don’t go to the bathroom until the hear God’s wishes first. Easier to ridicule that way, I guess.
Its something that believers and non-believers will always end up agreeing to disagree on.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
“I’ll plow through that door”
Typically people with more than a few brain cells actually open the door rather than smashing their snow machine through it. I think she would make an excellent candidate in 2012! and again in 2016! (stifles snickering)
Please, just keep running the most reactionary, low IQ secessionist numbskulls up the flagpole and we’ll keep defeating you extremists by many many millions more votes. Thanks!
November 12th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Obama is pretty similar to her in a lot of ways, he is just a little more practiced at sliding into his platitudes without answering the question with any details. I just don’t fall into the trap of considering that a lack of intelligence, they are simply ignorant of the subjects they are talking about. But that is true of so many presidents and people in general. Whenever you get a promotion you go into the job thinking you know everything you need to know, you have certainly bitched about it enough to your co-workers. Then you get there and realize how little you knew and how much you start acting like the people you were bitching about a few months ago.
I did a straw poll in my head and of all the presidents in my lifetime about half were ready for the job on day one, and only two or three were really ready; Nixon and Johnson because they were just mean SOB’s and Bush Sr. Ike was ready to lead but not be president, Kennedy wasn’t ready for Khrushchev. Reagan had a vision, but didn’t understand congress, Carter left office not ready, I already talked about Clinton, Bush Jr. didn’t understand Washington in general, he thought people could be taught to play nice, and poor Obama is in for a rude awakening from the remaining pair of the Axis of Evil as they do what they can to join forces, that coupled with ditto Bush Jr. The question is how quickly will he learn, Jack Kennedy learned quick, the next time Nikita screwed with him he was ready. And Jack turned out to be a pretty good president.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I have no qualms with people who practice religion. None at all. I respect their choice to believe just I as hope they respect my choice not to believe.
However, when people are interested in running for the most powerful position in the world and they’re always referencing “God’s wishes”, it makes me very nervous.
Political leaders of this world that speak of God’s will or wishes all make me very nervous, whether is Palin, Ahmadinejad or whoever else.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
shcb,
You forgot Gerald Ford. He was ready in ways Bidden is too, and in ways Palin never would becoem ready.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
oops, Ford is easy to forget :-) he had special problems following Nixon and all.
I saw him speak once, he was quite funny on one hand and inspirational on another. Elizabeth Dole also spoke at the same function, she was amazing. This was when she was head of the Red Cross and she had the ole’ shcb-ster in tears. But no, Ford wasn’t ready for his first day when he left office either. Kind of like Carter, nice guys, not presidential material.
NL,
I tend to agree with you in principal but I find many religious people use phrases like “God willing” sort of like we use “with a little luck”. Kind of like “with a little luck I may get that promotion” when what we really mean is “I work a lot harder than that other SOB, I better get that promotion, I DESERVE it”
November 13th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Hey, Richard Petty said it best, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”
November 13th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
that’s similar to I think it was Mark Twain who said “it’s better to be lucky than good, but it seems the harder I work, the luckier I get”. sometimes people say those things just to be polite. How is the job hunt going?
November 13th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
It’s going. I sent out and updated resume, updated my resume with job search sites and am currently trying to revamp my portfolio site to display more work. I’m currently not very hopeful about finding anything. I’ve got applications out right now, but if past history is any indication, most employers are probably getting piles of resume and it’ll be a while before they sort through them.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Someone also once said, “A real person makes their own luck.”
Kind of like what Jayson is doing right now. He could sit around and wait for luck to strike and a perfect job will fall in his lap. Or, he can make his own luck, by updating his resume, revamping his portfolio, sending out applications…
Or you could just pray for that perfect job to come ;)
November 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
yup, when I went off to school I was one of a thousand kids looking for work, so I parked my car at one end of main street and walked to the other stopping at each store, crossed the street and repeated back to my car, took all afternoon. I didn’t find anything but by the time I got back to the dorm someone had called the dorm mom and told her of this idiot kid going into every store. She made a couple calls and when I got back she had a job for me digging graves, paid the bills until something better came along.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Ha, that’s funny! I worked at a Funeral Home for a couple years to save for college. We could open a business together!
November 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
they wouldn’t let me touch the dead bodies, I guess they knew I was a pervert back then :-) so I can dig the graves and polish the hearse, you would have to do the rest. I can also walk down the streets ringing the bell yelling “bring out your dead!”
November 13th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
My mother was mortified (pun intended). She was so happy when I got a job in a truck bed factory where I was in constant peril of either being disemboweled or loosing a finger. Didn’t matter to her, anything was better that working with the dead. “it makes you weird if you’re around dead people” she would say even though whenever one of the customers of her hair salon would die she did their hair one last time in the funeral home. People are funny.