Dear CNN: Any news entity that employs Glenn Beck is not allowed to fact-check anyone, ever
July 15, 2007 by William K. Wolfrum
Remember when Mark Halperin damn near fellated Hugh Hewitt on the air in a desperate attempt to prove that he was no liberal?
Well, now it’s CNN’s turn to try to prove to the right that they are really on their side. CNN just released a 4,000-word debunking of Michael Moore’s debunking of their debunking of his film “Sicko”.
Ezra Klein does a great job of looking into why CNN, and a host of other mainstream media organizations, will go to literally absurd lengths to try and check every last fact Moore presented in “Sicko” while ignoring the endless barrage of fallacies they air day after day.
Maybe if these mainstream media types were as incredulous towards the powerful as they are to Moore, his productions wouldn’t pose a threat. After all, there’s nothing wrong with fact-checking, and asking hard questions, and raising an oppositional eyebrow towards pabulum and propaganda. The problem isn’t that the media is so quick to doubt Moore. It’s that they’re so trusting the rest of the time.
Where CNN really misses the point, like Halperin did is that they will never be considered anything other than radically liberal by fringe authoritarians like Hewitt and the those at National Review. When you are that far right, the middle disappears entirely. You are either with them, or against them, facts and reality be damned.
Plus, for CNN, they need to realize that if they can run Glenn Beck every single day without any type of fact-checking of any type, then they are in no position to check anyone else’s facts. On anything. Ever.
–WKW
Well said WKW…
Instead of jousting with Mr. Moore all of America would benefit if CNN and Mr. Moore went about working on this issue [as Lou Dobbs has with illegal immigration].
Tthe Glenn Beck reference is not lost on me although facts seem to be on him.
It is hard to believe that anyone could be more uninformed than Bill O’Reilly.
Congratulations to CNN for finding that person and putting him on TV.
And for finding someone who can feign outrage for hours, 5 days a week, over speculation of cases she really has no information about.
Nancy Grace – Glenn Beck: CNN’s 1-2 punch.
[Moore] told a Berlin audience that Americans are the dumbest people in the world…[and MM is walking proof of just how stupid one American can be!]
Funny how when Bill Clinton was POTUS, the party-line was that “the American people in their wisdom”…whenever they supported one of his programs. Didn’t Moore graduate from Moo U in East Lansing? Maybe that’s where he got his impression of the IQ of Americans.
Too bad lhe didn’t attend Ann Arbor’s University [he probably couldn't qualify cuz of grades or SATs] and discover that many Americans are extremely intelligent, even in his native state of Michigan!
Good post, WKW