This is an early Sunday morning, bleary-eyed rant. So if I go off the rails, please forgive.
Let me begin by saying, I’m a CNN Loyalist. My tee-vee is CNN most of the time, so I feel completely justified in my following rant.
I’m SO over John King’s new show "State of the Union". As best as I can tell, John King has decided that his show will take every policy decision, speech, press conference, face grimace, or head nod that the Obama Administration makes in that week and bring a bunch of beebling boobs on to help prove why any and all of that is an epic fail.
More below...
I’m currently seething over this weeks show (I know, why do I torture myself?) so I can’t give you links to today’s transcripts. But here’s a quick highlight from today: Mr. King had a segment on to discuss President Obama’s new budget. The segment featured Rep. Peter Fazio D-OR and Rep. Price R-GA. At one point, John King points the conversation towards earmarks. After announcing in his infinite wisdom that the President’s budget is "full of earmarks", followed by a not so subtle dig at Pres. Obama implying that he’s two-faced on earmarks, Mr. King puts up a graphic of "earmarks" for Rep. DeFazio’s district and basically asked him to get to ‘splainin! Now conveniently, Mr. King said he couldn’t find any earmarks for the Rep, Price – interesting. Rep. DeFazio got visibly upset, and I don’t blame him one bit. He was set up big time in a gotcha game! If I were him, or any other elected Democratic elected official, I would patently refuse to go on this show. And if that isn’t enough, Mr. King followed up this gem of a segment with one loosely called: "Green Collar Jobs – too little to late?" which proceeded to pan President Obama’s initiatives to replace lost manufacturing jobs with forward thinking green jobs. Aaargh!!!
Last week was a beauty. I tell you, my blood was on full boil during a segment between Gov. Deval Patrick and Gov. Haley Barbour discussing the President’s Stimulus Bill. Here’s John King’s set-up for this segment:
Gentlemen, I want to talk specifics about the economy first, but I want to start with a political question. We have a brand new poll out this morning with incredibly high marks for our new president. 80 percent of the American people view President Obama as a strong leader; 75 percent of the American people say he inspires confidence. And, yes, when you ask those same Americans, will President Obama's stimulus plan improve your financial situation? Three in 10 Americans, only three in 10, 31 percent, say yes; 67 percent, more than two-thirds of Americans, say no.
Haley Barbour, let me start with you. As a Republican governor, former national party chairman, why the disconnect between what people think personally of President Obama and whether they think his policy will work.
Very nice set-up for Gov. Barbour, there John King. I hope he tipped you good for that one. Can you believe it! 80 percent of the American people view President Obama as a strong leader; 75 percent of the American people say he inspires confidence. Rather than John King’s implication that "more than two-thirds" of the American people don’t have faith in President Obama’s policies, could it be that "more than two-thirds" of the American people realize that the prior administration dug such a deep, deep hole that even a President with an "S" on his chest will have an incredibly hard time getting us out of it.? To Gov. Barbour’s credit, he drew the same conclusion:
BARBOUR: Well, I think Americans want our president to succeed. You know, whether you're a Republican who had voted for John McCain, he's our president, and our country needs him to succeed, particularly in times like this. So I think that's part of it. At the same time, people are pessimistic about the economy
But the fun didn’t stop there. Check out this next exchange:
KING: We're back now with the governors of Mississippi and Massachusetts, Democrat Deval Patrick and Republican Haley Barbour.
Gentlemen, I want to use the map, for just a second, and get your advice on what you think of this. President Obama, as he sells the stimulus plan, has been getting outside of Washington.
Here's some of the places he's gone. He's gone down to the state of Florida. He's been out to Ohio. He's been out to Indiana. He's gone to Virginia. He was out in Colorado. And he went down here to Arizona.
Now why am I circling these states? Let's just do this, take the Telestrator off. Let's remember these states here.
See the circles? Let's go back in time to the 2004 election: a red state, a red state, a red state, a red state, and a red state.
This state stayed red this time, John McCain's home state, but Barack Obama would like to change it next time.
Haley Barbour, you were once the national Republican Party chairman. As a salesman, rate the president in terms of how he does on the road -- you think he's going those places for a reason?
BARBOUR: Of course, he's going to those places for a reason, John. I mean, in the -- David Axelrod, who's his campaign consultant/manager/guru really is one of the brightest, most capable people in American politics. And so this is what we've become accustomed to, the perpetual campaign.
KING: I thought he said he was going to be different?
BARBOUR: Well, this is the perpetual campaign. I mean, that's...
(LAUGHTER)
From the Transcripts:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/...
What the h*&%!! No John King, it couldn’t be that the President decided to get away from you idiotic, chattering, nabobs and get out amongst the people, from coast-to-coast and speak directly to them.
I’m sick of this show! I’m sick of John King’s surly, sly grin as he carefully crafts every question in the negative as it relates to anything that the President does.
I don’t have an issue with diversity of opinions. I don’t even mind the obvious right-wing tilt of Fox News. Sure they’re dishonest saying they’re "Fair and Balanced" but it’s fairly common knowledge what their game is and you know what you’re getting when you turn on this channel.
It is becoming increasingly clear that CNN’s "State of the Union" is designed to give the "loyal opposition" a 2 hour platform to air their grievances. It replaced "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer – a show I loved. Wolf was usually fair, and interviewed with probing intellectualism. You never got a sense he was on anyone’s side. Not so with John King.
So come clean CNN and John King! Put the real intent of this show out there for everyone to see. Be HONEST! I’m SICK and TIRED of turning on this show expecting to see balanced journalism and getting this. If John King is your "rising star" you’ll lose me as a loyalist, and I’m sure plenty of others, pretty quick.
Watch the show yourself, if you can stomach it. If you agree that this show is an irresponsible piece of journalistic crap, email CNN and let them know how you feel! Let’s pressure them to either: revamp the show, get rid of John King, or suffer the consequences!
End Rant!
UPDATE: Email 'em here - http://www.cnn.com/...