01 September 2008

Whither the bias?

CNN, that's whither!


You may have heard about this little video clip, where a former Chair of the Democratic National Committee is heard making the following comments about Hurricane Gustav's imminent "attack" on New Orleans:
The hurricane is going to hit New Orleans about the time they start. The timing is, at least it appears now, it will be there Monday. That just demonstrates God is on our side,” Fowler said, while laughing. Fowler also told Spratt that “everything’s cool.”
This post is about the way that this is being portrayed by the two major cable news networks, CNN and FoxNews. CNN's Headline:

Dem apologizes for joking about hurricane


FORMER DNC CHIEF APOLOGIZES FOR ‘GUSTAV IS A SIGN FROM GOD’ COMMENT

Do you see the distinction? CNN makes the assumption in the headline that the individual in question was just joking. That is not clear on the video. The FoxNews headline makes no such assumption. There is an important difference here.

Can you imagine a Republican making such a comment, suggesting political gain from a natural disaster? Surely such conversations have taken place, but the treatment by the media would surely be different.

3 comments:

Sportsattitude said...

Nice catch. You know, if MSNBC is the Democratic channel and Fox the Republican one...and CNN is going to advertise themselves so prominently as the "Independent" channel, they best act like it. That was an outrageous comment. I also liked the fact you displayed the balance CNN did not by acknowledging that some Republicans likely have actively thought about turning a negative into a positive as well. And you are also right that had a Republican made such a comment, there would have been a different intensity indeed.

Jen J said...

We have similar sentiments.
http://timandjenjacobson.blogspot.com/

Jlowryjr said...

Thanks for the comment. If a Republican had said he'd have been just as dumb.