CNN

I’m too lazy to find the link, but a little while ago, Matt Yglesias posted something about how he preferred Fox News to CNN, as it had more real actual news content (as comically slanted as it was). That didn’t seem right to me, but then I really never watch CNN (My little Fox News “problem” is more or less under control now, but I do flip over to it more than I should, which is never). I’ve now fallen into the habit of watching CNN in short snippets while at the gym (tragically, Fox News isn’t one of the available options), and two things seem clear: 1) Matt was right, and 2) Judy Woodruff and Wolf Blitzer are really appalling beyond all reason. Woodruff today had an interview with John Corzine. Corzine is introduced as “the man in charge of the Dem’s efforts to retake the Senate.” (Oh, good, I think, maybe he’ll talk about some of those Senate races I’m so worried about….)

She interviewed him for about 5-7 minutes, which consisted of, I’d estimate, about 7-10 questions. The first question was (I’m paraphrasing) “Didn’t John Kerry make a mistake by not responding to the SBVT stuff more quickly?” Corzine’s response was something to the effect of: no, Kerry’s fine, the truth will come out, the American people aren’t dumb, Kerry wants to stay focused on more substantive issues like jobs and health care, etc.

All fine so far; I’ve got no problem with the rather confrontational tone of the first question. I think a more accurate answer to the question might be “yes, he should have been quicker and harder against these liars” but it’s not in Corzine’s interest to go around saying “Kerry screwed up” on national TV, even if he in fact did. And Woodruff can’t possibly be so stupid as to not know that (can she?). So now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the Senate races, right?

Wrong. Woodruff proceeds to hound Corzine with the same damn question, over and over again, occasionally with a little cherry-picked poll data to bolster her position that SBVT have done real damage to Kerry. In fact, despite asking 7-10 discrete ‘questions’ each one of them was a rephrasing of her first question, which Corzine answered rather clearly the first time.

Of course, in an alternative universe where things make sense, what Corzine really should have done was turned this back on her, and asked her why CNN won’t, y’know, actually investigate smear campaigns against Kerry before giving hour after hour of free air time to frauds. Or just ask her to explain the difference between objectivity and balance.