As a rule, the little “quick vote” features on major news outlets’ websites are easy to ignore. After all, the “polls” — I use the word loosely — are intended to be just for fun. The results are unscientific, the methodology doesn’t include a random sample, and the whole thing is generally just a way for news sites to let readers feel like the page is “interactive” or something.
But once in a while, these silly online reader “polls” matter, if only to highlight the flaws of modern journalism. Ben Smith noted this question at CNN.com yesterday:
“Does Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be president of the United States?”
As Ben noted, accurately, “I’ve got to say, I’ve never seen a reader poll like this on a mainstream media website (or, to be honest, a right-wing blog).”
Nor have I, though if I were to guess, I’d have assumed Fox News would push the smear along before CNN would. Indeed, whether CNN realizes it or not, by even asking the question this way, it is fueling a right-wing smear by suggesting that Obama may not, in fact, be patriotic enough. Generally, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and the Republican National Committee — Obama’s three biggest critics right now — wouldn’t be so bold as to ask a question like this, and yet, there it was, on the home page of a network that bills itself as the most credible and professional of cable news outlets.
Put it this way: CNN, by running this reader poll, is itself questioning Obama’s patriotism for no reason. That’s not journalism; that’s ridiculous.
Josh Marshall added:
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised…. That’s how it works. Starts at right-swing smear sites and hoax emails. Then the AP’s Nedra Pickler, who specializes in scooping up this slop and laundering it into the mainstream press, writes it up for the AP that runs across the country. And then picks it up and makes it a regular part of the campaign conversation.
I doubt some top exec at CNN came up with this or any name anchor. It’s some producer in the bowels of the operation. But it amounts to the same thing because it’s part of the culture and there’s no accountability.
Get ready for more.
It’s not complicated. On the one hand, we have a leading Republican candidate who voted against Habeas Corpus and flip-flopped on U.S. torture policy. On the other, we have a candidate who doesn’t wear a flag lapel pin. Which of these, do you suppose, deserve to have their patriotism questioned on CNN.com?