I have no good headline, insert comment about McCain

Busy memorial day weekend with guests in town, so now I will try to do some catching up.

I'll start with this fairly controversial story. McCain Does Tricky Dance With Unpopular Bush.

Although I do not even specifically disagree with the theme of the article and the conclusions it draws (on a personal level), I think the headline, and some of the assumptions made in the article cross a line. To me this is not a news article, it is opinion, even a valid one, but one not appropriate for the CNN front page. This could have worked as an i-Report, a politics blog, or, (as I'm sure it already has been) a subject for discussion on CNN. I just don't think that McCain doing a "tricky dance" is newsworthy, or appropriate.

On the same subject, CNN ran a special report Sunday evening called The First Patient, which centered around the medical care of the president, specifically if he is ill or injured and what goes on behind closed doors etc. This special was no doubt intended to provoke subconscious consideration of a certain presidential candidates age and potential poor health.

I think we will only see more and more McCain bashing now that Obama has all but locked up the Democratic nomination. The media will soon loose the drama that is Obama vs. Hillary: Loosing the 2008 Election for the Dems One Comment At a Time. With that Springer episode out of syndication, the new target will surely be McCain.

Editorial v. News

I was just knee deep in a rant over an article that ran today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which "endorses Barack Obama for president". I know there is historical precedent for major newspapers to endorse political candidates, but I firmly believe it is inappropriate for the news to do anything other than REPORT THE NEWS.

Anyway, my rant was misguided. I was linked to the first article by this article, which makes a convincing case damning the Post-Gazette. The article begins with, "Barack Obama picked up the endorsement today of one of Pennsylvania's major newspapers," and I took that at face value.

But then I did a little searching. The Post-Gazette article doesn't specify what section in the paper the article ran in, but a little digging showed me that it ran in the editorial section, which is the only place in a newspaper that such an article is not only permissible, but expected. The editorial section is specifically designated as a place for the expression of opinions.

This is not to say that newspapers don't endorse politicians regularly, even if they don't come out and say it, it is evident in the articles. For all the efforts of the latter article calling out the Post-Gazette for bias, however, to be honest, the latter article seems a lot more biased and quick to jump the gun than the first.

My grandpa has always hated Ted Turner...

I am using my fiance's computer, which is glorious because it has two monitors and isn't as terrible as my busted laptop, but awful because he somehow exists without having Microsoft Office on his computer, so I'm typing directly in to the blog, which I hate! But I digress...

Anyhow, I got this link sent to me the other day.

I kind of already knew that Ted Turner was crazy, but some of his comments were a bit surprising. To be honest, I do agree with bits of what he said, that I'm not going to go in to, but overall I think this article blows his comments out of proportion.

Realistically, Turner is a man; a US citizen with with a right to freedom of speech. Yes, he owns a media empire, but his comments were not made on CNN, nor were they presented as fact. People say a lot of crazy shit on news-style talk shows, for reference, look for anything ever said by Ann Coulter.

And beyond that, his own bias does not, in my opinion, reflect on CNN's coverage of the news. As I have said before, more than anything else, media bias stems from money, not politics. Obviously there is bias of all kinds in the media, including liberal and conservative, but Ted Turner's "crazy" opinions don't have any more influence than Rupert Murdoch's.

It is always good to be critical of what you read and hear, and as a public figure, Turner is obviously subject to stricter criticism, but I don't think his personal opinions are cause for an article on a web site devoted to "exposing and combating liberal media bias." While I applaud the efforts of website like News Busters because I think what they do is important, no matter their political stance, Ted Turner is not the news and thus does not qualify for "busting."