Post by LucusHam on Apr 15, 2004 17:11:42 GMT -5
tvspy.com/shoptalk.cfm?page=1
If the fumbling, bumbling and obfuscating continues, CNN will find itself being snidely referred to again as "Chicken Noodle News." That was a nickname America's first cable news network earned in its early days when edges were rough, staff members were sopping wet behind the ears, and the network was considered a laughing stock by serious broadcast journalists.
With its stunning coverage from Baghdad during America's first war with Iraq, CNN seemed to level the playing field with the Big Boys. In recent weeks, though, troubling incidents have occurred which suggest CNN is growing backward. People are laughing at it again, and some pointing with alarm.
(In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that a close personal friend of mine is involved in a contract dispute with CNN. But the other events are unrelated and would make me wary even if I knew no one at the network personally.)
The first fiasco seemed funny at first but got less funny as the week wore on. It was the last week in March, and it began with David Letterman showing excruciatingly funny news footage on his CBS "Late Show." In the video, George W. Bush was making a speech in Orlando, on a platform crowded with supporters. Among them was Tyler Crotty, son of the county Republican Party chairman.
Bored adults presumably concealed their boredom with the speech, but young Crotty did not. Standing behind Bush and to his right, Crotty yawned, squirmed, checked his watched, wiggled and wriggled. Letterman's staff edited the reactions into a brief montage and got huge laughs on the Monday night (March 29) show.
CNN played the same montage the next morning, identifying it as a Lettermanly prank. But upon returning from a commercial break, Daryn Kagan -- one of CNN's many Stepford Anchors -- said, "We're being told by the White House that the kid, funny as he was, was edited into that video." She chalked it off to mischief by the Letterman folks.
Her words should have given any viewer pause. "We're being told by the White House" means, what, that the White House called and CNN dutifully passed along what was claimed without hesitation or a bit of double-checking?
Later in the day another Stepford Anchor changed CNN's version of the truth. Apparently the White House called again. The anchor said that Crotty, not yet identified, was indeed at the rally but was not situated on the platform behind Bush as the tape made it appear. Baloney. "Late Show" hardly has the time or budget to do elaborate special effects that would plant a boy on a stage when he wasn't there.
On the next edition of "Late Night," Letterman lashed out at the White House, calling their version of events "an out-and out, 100 percent lie. The kid was absolutely there, and he absolutely was doing everything we pictured via the videotape." Then CNN back-tracked and flip-flopped: the White House hadn't called, the first anchor "misspoke," and let's forget the whole thing.
Letterman would not forget. On CBS, he called the people of CNN "boneheads" and said CNN had in effect told viewers a lie on instructions from the White House. As Washington insiders know, the Bush administration is obsessive in its desire to control the flow of information -- and vindictive in a Nixonian way against anyone considered an adversary.
By week's end, Letterman had young Crotty, who had subsequently turned 13, on "Late Show" as a guest. Letterman proudly announced he had received a full-fledged apology from CNN. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman summarized the mess: "CNN passed along a smear that it attributed to the White House. When the smear backfired, it declared its previous statements inoperative and said the White House wasn't responsible. Sound familiar?"
Krugman thought it familiar because of a CNN blunder by anchor Wolf Blitzer, who is kind of Stepfordish himself, a robotic anchor. The bearded Blitzer passed along as news another attempt to discredit Richard Clarke, the terrorism expert who has charged that the Bush administration lied about its reasons for launching the war against Iraq.
Blitzer "reported" that "administration officials" were saying of Clarke that "there are some weird aspects in his life" -meaning Clarke's "own personal life." What weird aspects? Who made the charge? Blitzer let it go at that, promulgating a sleazy smear. Wrote Krugman: "There's no excuse for disseminating unchecked rumors because they come from `the White House,' then denying the White House connection when the rumors prove false."
It's bad journalism and bad manners. And if CNN doesn't clean up its act, "Chicken Noodle News" will be too kind a nickname. "White House News Bureau" would be more appropriate.
If the fumbling, bumbling and obfuscating continues, CNN will find itself being snidely referred to again as "Chicken Noodle News." That was a nickname America's first cable news network earned in its early days when edges were rough, staff members were sopping wet behind the ears, and the network was considered a laughing stock by serious broadcast journalists.
With its stunning coverage from Baghdad during America's first war with Iraq, CNN seemed to level the playing field with the Big Boys. In recent weeks, though, troubling incidents have occurred which suggest CNN is growing backward. People are laughing at it again, and some pointing with alarm.
(In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that a close personal friend of mine is involved in a contract dispute with CNN. But the other events are unrelated and would make me wary even if I knew no one at the network personally.)
The first fiasco seemed funny at first but got less funny as the week wore on. It was the last week in March, and it began with David Letterman showing excruciatingly funny news footage on his CBS "Late Show." In the video, George W. Bush was making a speech in Orlando, on a platform crowded with supporters. Among them was Tyler Crotty, son of the county Republican Party chairman.
Bored adults presumably concealed their boredom with the speech, but young Crotty did not. Standing behind Bush and to his right, Crotty yawned, squirmed, checked his watched, wiggled and wriggled. Letterman's staff edited the reactions into a brief montage and got huge laughs on the Monday night (March 29) show.
CNN played the same montage the next morning, identifying it as a Lettermanly prank. But upon returning from a commercial break, Daryn Kagan -- one of CNN's many Stepford Anchors -- said, "We're being told by the White House that the kid, funny as he was, was edited into that video." She chalked it off to mischief by the Letterman folks.
Her words should have given any viewer pause. "We're being told by the White House" means, what, that the White House called and CNN dutifully passed along what was claimed without hesitation or a bit of double-checking?
Later in the day another Stepford Anchor changed CNN's version of the truth. Apparently the White House called again. The anchor said that Crotty, not yet identified, was indeed at the rally but was not situated on the platform behind Bush as the tape made it appear. Baloney. "Late Show" hardly has the time or budget to do elaborate special effects that would plant a boy on a stage when he wasn't there.
On the next edition of "Late Night," Letterman lashed out at the White House, calling their version of events "an out-and out, 100 percent lie. The kid was absolutely there, and he absolutely was doing everything we pictured via the videotape." Then CNN back-tracked and flip-flopped: the White House hadn't called, the first anchor "misspoke," and let's forget the whole thing.
Letterman would not forget. On CBS, he called the people of CNN "boneheads" and said CNN had in effect told viewers a lie on instructions from the White House. As Washington insiders know, the Bush administration is obsessive in its desire to control the flow of information -- and vindictive in a Nixonian way against anyone considered an adversary.
By week's end, Letterman had young Crotty, who had subsequently turned 13, on "Late Show" as a guest. Letterman proudly announced he had received a full-fledged apology from CNN. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman summarized the mess: "CNN passed along a smear that it attributed to the White House. When the smear backfired, it declared its previous statements inoperative and said the White House wasn't responsible. Sound familiar?"
Krugman thought it familiar because of a CNN blunder by anchor Wolf Blitzer, who is kind of Stepfordish himself, a robotic anchor. The bearded Blitzer passed along as news another attempt to discredit Richard Clarke, the terrorism expert who has charged that the Bush administration lied about its reasons for launching the war against Iraq.
Blitzer "reported" that "administration officials" were saying of Clarke that "there are some weird aspects in his life" -meaning Clarke's "own personal life." What weird aspects? Who made the charge? Blitzer let it go at that, promulgating a sleazy smear. Wrote Krugman: "There's no excuse for disseminating unchecked rumors because they come from `the White House,' then denying the White House connection when the rumors prove false."
It's bad journalism and bad manners. And if CNN doesn't clean up its act, "Chicken Noodle News" will be too kind a nickname. "White House News Bureau" would be more appropriate.