Showing 97 posts tagged CNN

Joe the Plumber blows a gasket on CNN

During his conversation with CNN’s Zoraida Sambolin, Wurzelbacher – who won an Ohio Republican congressional primary this week — began to show his first signs of frustration when asked why he believes he’s qualified to run for Congress.

“What qualifies me?” Wurzelbacher said, laughing. “One, I’m an American citizen. Two, I’m very much involved in the process of what’s going on. I guess my question would be, what qualifies the current politicians who are killing our country, Republicans and Democrats alike?”

He added, “I’m sorry, it just seems like a silly question.”

Things only got worse when Sambolin cited some of Wurzelbacher’s previous statements about homosexuality, including his claim that the word “queer” is not a slur, as well as his declaration that he would not allow homosexuals “anywhere near my children.”

“Have you changed your positions on this at all?” Sambolin asked.

“So this is TMZ, this isn’t CNN, is what you’re saying,” Wurzelbacher shot back.

Read more: POLITICO

CNN suspends Martin; not Loesch, Erickson - Politico

With its decision to suspend political contributor Roland Martin today for controversial statements he made on Twitter, CNN seems to have suggested that controversial comments made recently by other contributors — namely Dana Loesch and Erick Erickson — do not warrant the same punishment.

On her radio show, Loesch championed U.S. Marines for urinating on dead Taliban soldiers and said that she would “drop trou” and do it too.

On his radio show, Erickson championed the tasing of an Occupy D.C. protestor and said, “watching a hippie protester get tased just makes my day.”

On Twitter, Martin seemed to champion violence against gay men, writing, ”If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl.”

(Click above link for more)

inothernews:

shortformblog:

thenoobyorker:

It’s like you can literally see people in a control room scrambling to pull out some feed wires the moment he starts criticizing foreign policy on live tv.. - via

Viral video of the night: CNN pulls the plug on a soldier making an unauthorized comment on foreign policy/ Iran/ Israel. Way to go CNN.

For the record: It’s entirely unclear from this video whether CNN intentionally cut the feed as the soldier was talking, or if there was a legitimate technical glitch that caused them to lose the connection. Let’s not jump to any conclusions one way or the other just yet. Also, it’s a little presumptuous to call something the “viral video of the night” before it’s had the chance to go viral.

I doubt very much that CNN would intentionally pull the plug on a U.S. soldier making a comment like that.  It would appear that a satellite feed was temporarily disrupted or some other technical glitch.  Active duty soldiers speaking out against administration foreign policy?  That’s the very definition of news.

CNN's Kosik Regrets Occupy Wall Street Tweet As Industry Criticism Mounts | Media Matters for America

Carol Ann Riordan, interim executive director of the American Press Institute, which conducts many journalism ethics events, also criticized Kosik.

“This is pretty basic journalism 101,” Riordan said. “You absolutely do not put in your point of view or feelings about the subjects you are reporting on. It would be one thing if a reporter used Twitter to capture very quickly the events of the news. But saying they ’bang on the bongos’ and ’smoke weed’ or ’the list of whines is too long already’ she not only stepped over the line, she jumped over the county line.”

“Two of the fundamental attributes of good journalism are curiosity and a respect for the people on whom you report. Burnett got an “F” on both those counts with her Occupy Wall Street piece. Not only didn’t she listen hard enough to learn anything from the people in the group, she and her producers positioned the speakers to be seen as objects of derision. That is deplorable.”

David Zurawik, in a nice Baltimore Sun piece on Erin Burnett and Occupy Wall Street. (via markcoatney)

Jon Stewart doesn't know what Obama believes in, calls president's health-care plan a 'clusterf---'

Some quotes from a new Jon Stewart Rolling Stone interview:

“[A] lot of people wish” the President would “take the gloves off a little more,” Stewart responds that Obama’s “problem is not his lack of passion. It’s his lack of direction.”


“I still don’t know what he [Obama] believes in.” 

“Maybe that’s my biggest issue with [Obama]: I’m not sure what he truly thinks is the right path, other than that he believes the wealthy should pay a little bit more of their fair share.”

[H]e’s sure the President is “pleased with what he’s done,” but adds: “I would have preferred to see something a little more transformative.”

 Obama’s health-care plan a “2,000-page clusterf-k.”

“You can blame the intransigence of Tea Party Republicans all you want, but Democrats had a chance to pass a budget before they lost the midterm election. “They didn’t do it because they were afraid that those votes would cost them the House,” Stewart continues. “They had the ability to avoid the entire f-ing thing. And they didn’t do it, out of cowardice.”

“CNN.” He says the news network’s “idea of clarity seems to be … grits without salt. It’s just all mashed up - there’s no direction, under the guise of ‘integrity.’

“CNN feels like an opportunity squandered.”