so you think CNN is liberal?

scroll down for an update

Well, I think you’re wrong. I’m not saying CNN is conservative or anything (though after you read the rest of this post, you might well think the network is trying to improve its bona fides—you know: just in case things don’t go their way…down the road…).

What I’m saying is that the agenda of CNN and every other purveyor of “news” is to grab your attention and to entertain you—any way it can. To provide infotainment for your viewing pleasure…or displeasure. Take your pick.

For example, there’s this [you need to click on the link to get the essence of this post], which was heavily promoted on Paula Zahn’s program last night[emphasis mine]:

ZAHN: Let’s talk about a special you have on…extremism in the [Arabic language] media. …

BECK: You know, I — I really, truly believe that the media in general has been this close to criminally negligent on reporting the truth on what’s going on. They’re not showing us images that we need to see. …

ZAHN: Wait. You are them [i.e., "the media"].

BECK: I know. Isn’t that…

(LAUGHTER)

BECK: That’s sick, isn’t it?

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: So, you’re — you’re inflicting some blame on yourself.

BECK: No. No, I’m not — but I’m not a journalist. I’m — I’m — you know, I’m a rodeo clown. You know that.

And, when I’m sitting here in a media source, and I see videotape that I have never seen before, and I say, well, gee, how come I’m not seeing this? This is important stuff, images that will shock and horrify you.

Like, I am going to show you a tape — a piece of a tape here. This is in one piece of the special tonight about what is happening to the children in the Middle East and how they are being brainwashed. This is a three-and-a-half-year girl — three-and-a-half-year-old girl.

They go on to show a clip, courtesy of Hezbollah TV, of a little Muslim girl describing Jews as “monkeys and apes.” Shocking, I know—unless you’ve been reading LGF since its inception. Which most viewers of CNN have not been doing, so it’s new to their audience. Which is the whole point.

There’s a whole new sub-genre of nfotainment: the kind that’s designed to get your blood boiling. At least Glenn Beck owns up to being a “rodeo clown.” A certain pompous someone over on MSNBC

should get a clue.

[On the other hand: there's this serious conversation, which I haven't yet read, about "blurring the line between news, comedy, and commentary," in which Mr. O features prominently. Right up my alley. I'll report back after I've read it.]

update: When I posted this earlier today, I had no idea that there is a mini-war going on between Olbermann and Beck—or, rather, that Olbermann took aim at Beck yesterday for being the “Worst Person in the World.”

Anyhow: he did just that, for a segment in which Beck interviewed the first Muslim to be elected to the Congress, Keith Ellison. Read all about it here on Media Matters (which is on Olbermann’s “side” in this “debate”).

The only people you ever seem Olbermann interviewing are people who agree with him. Why is it that Olbermann always attacks people from behind the camera and never face-to-face? Could it be that he wouldn’t know how to have a dialogue with someone who disagrees with him? Just wondering…