(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
I have to admit that I very rarely watch CNN these days but today while reading through the posts at Crooks & Liars, I may have to consider watching Soledad O’Brien. Most of the this morning Romney surrogate John Sununu was spouting half truths and bold faced lies about Medicare and the Romney/Ryan budget proposal that would leave seniors with a fixed voucher for private insurance. When he tried to spew the same talking points to Ms. O’Brien on her CNN show Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien, he found himself in a debate with someone who had done her homework:
You can read the transcript of the exchange here
Sununu had been making the rounds of talk shows for several days spouting the same talking points virtually unchallenged. He even, rudely, out shouted Andrea Mitchell on her MSNBC show who was not as well prepared to counter the debunked party line.
Apparently this was not the first encounter that Ms. O’Brien had with a Romney/Ryan camp spokesperson. While subbing for Anderson Cooper Monday night on CNN’s 360° she cut off spokesperson Barbara Comstock when Comstock spouted the nonsense lie that $700 billion has somehow been “stolen” from Medicare. As soon as Comstock realized that she wasn’t getting away with that talking point she fell back on the debunked canard of “death panels.” Of course the right wing is having a field day with this because they claim that O’Brien was taking her argument from a left wing blog and siting Obama talking points. That’s the best they can do to counter Ms. O’Brien’s accurate fact checking.
It is good to see a news anchor on cable doing their job. Perhaps David Gregory, Chris Matthews, et al should take a page from Ms. O’Brien’s book. I should watch CNN in the morning more often.
2 comments
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Only Republicans are allowed to adopt such tactics which they use repeatedly in this country. They can hector hosts, spout clearly disproved allegations and they don’t care. The Republican Party is now the Fascist Party without even an appearance to the contrary. It has the same demographic as the old Nazi Party in Germany and this election could be the turning point in the history of the U.S.
While I’m against Obama, he is an authoritarian, non-democratic leader but he falls well short of classic fascism–he’s just a jerk and an opportunist. I may actually vote for the a-hole.
If others begin showing her courage and the execs don’t fire her there is hope yet. I can assure you that CNN is facing severe pressure to toe the line. We’ll see if it works–keep us informed.