CNN's front page article, with the grotesquely misleading headline "Biden, Obama Votes Kept "Bridge To Nowhere Alive", is a poor excuse for journalism. I'm convinced it's part of the MSM's effort to keep the race close.
The article, co-written by Drew Griffin, is nothing more than a gussied-up version of a post Griffen wrote yesterday for Anderson Cooper's 360 blog called"Biden's Talking Point To Nowhere".
The blog post, as expected, was pumped full of snarkspeak and partisan gotcha lead-ins, and had all the journalistic integrity of Inside Edition. In it, he calls out Joe Biden and Barack Obama for supporting the massive transportation bill in which the Bridge to Nowhere was buried.
In 2005 congress passed a huge, pork filled transportation bill that included two bridges in Alaska “to nowhere.”
He mentions Palin's flip flopping on the issue in passing, essentially saying, "Yeah, she did. But she didn't vote for it!". The real sin was voting for the transportation bill. Griffen then mentions the Coburn ammendment to kill the Bridge, and talks about how it "essentially" re-routed that money to New Orleans for Katrina relief.
Essentially? That's pretty vague, isn't it?
Yep. Liberal bastion the Heritage Foundation provides the unfortunate details that escaped Griffen's gaze in this report on the amendment:
In opposing Senator Coburn’s amendment to defund the bridge, one prominent Senator told a closed-door meeting of conservatives that the plan was simply impractical. Many of the earmarks, he claimed, are counted towards a state’s equity bonus and thus are part of the state-by-state allocation formula. Defunding the bridge, he said, would direct at most $75 million to Louisiana, with the remaining $148 million returning to Alaska as money the state could use at its discretion for road projects.
The blog post was then blown up for today's main page, much of the snark removed, the language muted and "non-partisan" experts brought in to comment. With his newfound integrity, Griffen takes aim at Delaware's earmark requests, as he puts it "submitted through Biden".
Among his requests: $1 million for renovation of an opera house in Wilmington, another million for the construction of a children's museum and thousands of dollars for a water park renovation in Lewes.
"I think opera patrons generally can afford to -- you can raise money for an opera house; you can refurbish things a lot of different ways," Allison said.
That's Bill Allison of the taxpayer watchdog organization The Sunlight Foundation, by the way. Why his opinion on opera house renovation techniques is valid, I couldn't tell you. But I can tell you I saw this coming.
[conspiracy theory]
The Newsman Giveth, The Newsman Taketh Away. This article was a poorly researched, poorly sourced effort to "balance" the news cycles. The mainstream media knows they can sway polls and effect the race. McCain won all the news cycles during Palinmania. Obama won Lehmangate. This is CNN trying to turn the race again. They NEED a close race, a barnburner, an all nighter to keep the war-room running on election night. Don't expect them to let Obama get too far ahead. The next time he does, you can bank on seeing more shoddy examples of thinly veiled political smear disguised as journalism trotted out as prominently as necessary to bring things back to even.
[/conspiracy theory]
[action call]
What can we do to counteract this kind of nonsense? Stay on top of them. Write letters to the editor. Send feedback. Give tips on other newsworthy stories. The phrasology of the headline writers is disproportionately influential on the electorate- when the verbiage betrays an opinion or belies the facts (such as in this case), send complaints in to the offending party. There's a reason why headlines change over the course of a day- they react to this kind of feedback. For the record, here's CNN's contact info. Keep your heads up.
Anderson Cooper's 360 Feedback Form
CnnPolitics Feedback Form
Cnn.com website information error report form
Cnn.com general story feedback form (Read: news tips submission)
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