The Big Loser in the Iowa Debates? CNN's reputation

[booley]

In case we though the Warren?Sanders things was CNNs only low point that evening..

No. No, there were many more.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer led off a series of foreign policy questions with a similarly loaded question for Sanders:

Sen. Sanders, in the wake of the Iran crisis, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei has again called for all US troops to be pulled out of the Middle East, something you’ve called for as well. Yet when American troops last left Iraq, ISIS emerged and spread terror across the Middle East and, indeed, around the world. How would you prevent that from happening again?

So Sanders was asked to defend his policy—identified as being the same as that of a hated official enemy—against the charge that it would “spread terror…around the world.” (Blitzer’s blaming ISIS on the withdrawal from Iraq evades the reality that there would never have been an ISIS were it not for the Iraq invasion.)

Rather than giving similarly poison-tipped questions to Sanders’ rivals, Blitzer went on for the most part to merely ask them to respond to what had already been said: “Vice President Biden?… Senator Klobuchar, what’s your response?… Mayor Buttigieg, you served in Afghanistan. Who’s right?” Politico’s Ryan Lizza (1/15/20) referred to this as Blitzer doing “an admirable job teasing out some of the subtle differences that have crystallized among Democrats in the post-Obama world.”

Elizabeth Warren was also painted as a bearer of fringe ideas that “will scare away swing voters.”

It’s important to remember that CNN’s blatant insertion of its own point of view into the presidential debate doesn’t reflect a mere personal dislike of Sanders, but rather a consistent ideological orientation. Warren, despite being used as a blunt object with which to bash Sanders, was also given questions that likewise painted her as a champion of way-out ideas, as with this from Phillip:

Why does it make sense for the government to manufacture drugs, especially when public trust in government is near historic lows?

Of course, it wouldn’t be elected officials making the drugs, but government agencies—and it’s the former and not the latter who are generally distrusted by the public (Pew, 9/6/19). The drug industry, meanwhile, is the least trusted of all major industrial sectors (Gallup, 9/3/19)—but why spoil the premise of a good “gotcha” question?

There are a lot more examples in the link below.

https://fair.org/home/the-big-loser-in-the-iowa-debate-cnns-reputation/?fbclid=IwAR1EgkhHVRMtjXd-6PUOBR6WR8fWH8c1jtL77N8jZKNhkZ0ILzlHJOuzThM

[George II]

1. Not true, but interesting from where the criticism is coming.

[boomer_wv]

4. Of course.

What person not named Trump would be able to convince his supporters that the media is their enemy if he wanted?

[highplainsdem]

6. I did a quick search and saw the two authors of that piece have a history of slamming the media

for what they perceive as bias against Sanders.

This is just more of the same.

[PatrickforO]

2. Their questions WERE lame.

No doubt there.

But, I have to say, I thought Warren and Sanders both did quite well in this debate. Of course as an economist, I am biased for both of them!

[Uncle Joe]

3. A most excellent read.

Thanks for the thread booley.

[highplainsdem]

5. One more complaint about the media from two Sanders backers always complaining about the media.

It took only seconds of searching to see that Naureckas and Hollar can be counted on for this sort of piece.

[JoeOtterbein]

7. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[billpolonsky]

8. CNN's Debate Performance Was Villainous and Shameful

[link:https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/january-democratic-debate-2020-cnn-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-938365/amp/?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR29jOJdbF7u4YkpL2PIOru2guu3eYeElSh0h16_XHBRra3QmU3GP6mpN0I|

[Thekaspervote]

12. Matt taibi....stein greenwald wiki leaks supporter

Taibi is the villainous shameful one

Your guy had a horrible night... why not just move on?!

[TryLogic]

9. I thought the big loser was the woman with the bright red lipstick.

Her interrupting the candidates was aggressive and discourteous.

[PatSeg]

10. Oh yes, she was awful

It seems to be the way CNN conducts debates, often abrupt and rude. That woman was the worst I've seen.

[hay rick]

11. I screamed at the TV when I heard the drug manufacturing question.

All of CNN's health care questions seem designed to reinforce the idea that Americans paying twice as much for healthcare as Europeans and Canadians is somehow inevitable and reasonable and not a reason to contemplate major changes.

[Sloumeau]

13. CNN's questions were pretty terrible. :) eom

[mvd]

17. Thank you

I am happy that a supporter of another candidate can see through this. CNN also tried to promote a fight instead of discussing the issues.

[msongs]

14. if this is posted 100 times a day does it make it all true? nt

[LanternWaste]

16. Blame the media, question the polls, rinse, lather, repeat as necessary.

There are a lot more examples on page one of GD P.