CNN’s unmistakable anti-Palin bias

I have raved a bit this year over what I found to be CNN-TV’s surprisingly decent election coverage, primarily on primary nights and debate nights. Even though I grit my teeth over the fact that they sometimes invite their mainstream journalists to join in on the political commentary and continue to include Paul Begala and David Gergen in their coverage, I will still watch it as I find their debates to be – for the most part – respectable and engaging.

However, it’s become clear over the course of the last month and a half that CNN’s newsroom is blatantly biased against Senator McCain and Gov. Palin, particularly the Gov. Yeah, I know most major news outlets are biased against the McCain-Palin ticket, but CNN takes it to new lows. I’ve documented it a bit at this blog, like how they got wrong McCain’s stance on deregulation and oversight as it relates to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (more here). There are other instances, too, like this one, where they ask, “Fact check: Obama said he would ‘spread his wealth around’? They declared that “misleading” and gave this rationale for their “verdict”: “McCain’s remark was an oversimplification of a five-minute-long conversation. Obama replied in great detail about his tax plan, and the “spread the wealth” remark was one small part of the conversation.” Huh? How can it be “misleading” to say that Obama said we should “spread the wealth” around because it would mean everyone would be better off when it’s captured on video for the world to see?!

Add two more recent instances to the list. The first one:

(CNN) Γ’β‚¬β€œ Sarah Palin is taking heat Wednesday for appearing to overstate the role of vice president, saying in a recent interview that she would be “in charge of the Senate” should John McCain win the White House.

The comments came in an interview with Colorado TV station KUSA in response to a third-grader’s question, “What does the Vice President do?”

“[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom,” she said.

The comments have drawn criticism from Democrats and liberal blogs which note the actual role of the vice president when it comes to the Senate is simply to cast a tie-breaking vote in the event of a stalemate. According to Article I of the U.S. Constitution, the vice president is the “President” of the Senate, but has no executive position when it comes to presiding over the chamber.

[…]

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Palin, said the Alaska governor was simply answering the question in a way a third-grader could understand.

“Governor Palin was responding to a third grader’s inquiry,” she said. “She was explaining in terms a third-grader could understand that the vice-president is also president of the U.S. Senate.”

In an interview with CBS earlier this month, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden also said he hoped to play an influential role in the legislative branch if Barack Obama wins the White House.

“I hope one of my roles as vice president will be as the person actually implementing Barack Obama’s policy. You gotta get the Congress to go along with it,” he said. “And it’s presumptuous to say, but I know it pretty well. And I think I am fairly respected on both sides of the aisle.”

But what did CNN leave out of this piece? Joe Biden’s bonafide gaffe from the veep debate a couple of weeks ago regarding a vice president’s role and where it’s noted in the US Constitution. Now, you didn’t hear a peep out of the far left over Biden’s faux pas when it happened, yet the left is starting to go ballistic over Palin’s answer about veeps, insinuating that her answer to a 3rd grader is grounds to disqualify her from the vice presidency. I guess we can chalk up their silence on Biden’s veep answer to them beleiving that it was one of Biden’s many “rhetorical flourishes.”

Last but not least is how, earlier this week, CNN reporter Drew Griffin tried to ridicule Gov. Palin in an interview by using a quote by NRO’s Byron York that was taken so far out of context that it’s hard to believe that it was a “mistake.” Once you read the quote at the NRO link, you’ll see why the use of it was so despicable.

Tonight I watched Newt Gingrich on Greta Van Susteren’s show and he absolutely unloaded on CNN for that interview, as well as went off on the mainstream media in general for how far in the tank they’re in for Obama. I’ll post the video of it in my next post (update: here it is). What he says expresses the views of many conservatives across the country, including myself – conservatives who by no means believe Gov. Palin is perfect but who also realize that the treatment she’s been given by the liberal press has been one-sided from day one. It’s gotten beyond frustrating having to fight a mainstream media that continues to get it wrong on purpose in order to get ‘their guy‘ elected.

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