This … is CNN?

April 22, 2008

Remember, conservative activists are convinced that CNN is unfriendly territory for Republicans. That is, except for all the ones the network keeps hiring.

Former White House press secretary Tony Snow will join CNN as a conservative commentator beginning Monday.

CNN president Jon Klein announced that Snow, a long-time political observer with a longstanding news background, will contribute to CNN as the network continues to broadcast winning political coverage.

Snow most recently served as press secretary to President Bush. For 10 years, beginning in 1996, he appeared on Fox News Channel as the host of Fox News Sunday, Weekend Live with Tony Snow and other programs. Before joining Fox, Snow served as a substitute “From the Right” co-host for CNN’s Crossfire.

I’m not going to use this as an excuse to tell another predictable joke about the “not-so-liberal media.” OK, I’m not going to just do that. Instead, I think there are two broader angles that are worth considering here.

First is the fact that Snow spent his tenure misleading reporters, and by extension, the public. At times, I was amazed reporters showed up for his briefings at all, given that Snow had stopped trying to be taken seriously at all, repeating obviously false talking points with a straight face.

Tim F. makes the argument, persuasively, that Snow “might be the one, singular high-level Bush appointee who showed a basic ability to do his job. He ran the press in circles of bullshit and empty phrases, but one could say that is the Press Secretary’s primary job. He didn’t out any CIA agents. If the cable channels must pay someone to repeat right-slanted nonsense every few hours, and it’s pointless pretending that won’t happen, I honestly prefer Snow to most of the alternatives.”

That’s pretty compelling, actually, but I nevertheless find CNN’s attitude backwards. Snow’s on-the-job performance was comparable to Baghdad Bob’s, to the point that Snow simply wasn’t credible speaking on any subject. Why reward that with a spot on the “best political team on television”? Does CNN really need another conservative voice to spin the news?

Second is the strange phenomenon of rewarding the Bush gang in general with high-profile opportunities at major media outlets. The Bush White House has been, for lack of a better word, a disaster for the country. From a journalistic perspective, these guys have been a nightmare — embracing almost comical levels of secrecy, propaganda, and media manipulation.

And yet, the moment presidential aides leave the West Wing, media outlets jump at the chance to put them on the payroll.

Michael Gerson was picked up as a columnist for the Washington Post.

Sara Taylor, who was integrally involved in the U.S. Attorney Purge scandal and the politicization of federal agencies, became a pundit for MSNBC.

Karl Rove became a Fox News “analyst,” a columnist for Newsweek, and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

And now Tony Snow has parlayed his mendacity into a gig on CNN.

Why would a “liberal” media keep giving jobs to members of the Bush gang? Because “working the refs” works.

I hear that John Ashcroft is looking for a job. Maybe CNN should hire him as a legal analyst. That would just about complete their turning to the Dark Side.

  • CNN is no longer a viable news outlet it’s strictly for entertainment. Snow a lying pig will fit right in with the cast of jokesters like Jack Cafferty, elitists like Lou Dobbs and bozos like Anderson Cooper

  • CNN might have been better off saying the reason for hiring Snow was to raise the IQ level. Wih people like Larry King, Wolf Blitzer, Don Lemon, Betty Nguyen and Anderson Cooper, no one would have argued.

    Michael Gerson,Sara Taylor, Karl Rove

    And David Frum

  • The first link above, “keeps hiring”, is Wolf Blitzer’s CNN blog (political ticker). If you’re into schadenfreude, read the comments to see what CNN fans think of this move. Apparently they weren’t asked to hold their snark until today.

  • With only a very few exceptions, the CNN on-air personalities are utter clowns. I am always fascinated at how they can continually proclaim themselves as “the best political team” and “the most trusted name in news” without choking or manifesting signs of outright shame.

  • Before I look at the ‘liberal media’ meme, I want to briefly question Katy Hill’s dismissal of Jack Cafferty. Other than Keith, he has been the bluntest critic of Bush on any of the news channels. Yes, he is a ‘jokester’ but remember that Keith started out as that ‘funny Sports guy’ from ESPN — or at least that’s what I first saw him as. But Cafferty gets heard, and the jokes help that.
    (And while I have many nasty things to say about Lou Dobbs — particularly because he serves as a ‘conduit’ for the anti-immigration lies of the really far right — the last thing he is is ‘elitist.’ He’s actually a right-wing populist — as were many of the more prominent anti-immigrationist through history. Remember, he was also the most important media personality when it came to bringing the dangers of the Diebold machines to light, and he is frequently critical of corporate criminality — where it affects the ‘little guy’ which, for him, means the ‘small investor’ or the workers.)

    Let me put my (long-winded) discussion of the ‘left-wing media’ in a separate comment.

  • Tony Snow going from the White House to CNN is just like some airhead moving from ABC to some other Disney-owned entity. The concentration of media ownership since the Reagan administration is one of the most effective strategies of the Publican corporate conspiracy against America. He isn’t even part of the interlocking directorates – he’s just an employee.

  • sometimes it’s important to go back to basics…

    The neocons will always accuse the mainstream media. Even during the beginning of the Iraq War, where embedded reporters recited GOP talking points verbatim, the GOP accused them of a liberal bias. You can hire all the right wing toadys you want in the hopes that that will stop the accusations. It won’t work. The GOP wants we the people to be completely confused & conflicted. They want us to constantly question whether the media is telling us the truth. Because that makes it easier for the GOP to continue robbing us blind. While we’re wondering if Story A is true or false, they’re off committing Crimes B through Z.

    And the mainstream media, in their constant atempt to placate these criminals posing as whiny-ass titty babies, are subsequently accessories to their crimes. Because they know they’re getting played. And they let it happen anyway.

    Stop. You’re destroying America.

  • Is MSNBC in talks with Scott McClellan?

    Now THERE was a guy uncomfortable with parroting BS right wing talking points.
    He was such fun to watch.

    He was a believer in conservatism and didn’t feel lying was justified for a righteous cause. Problem was, he was the only one who thought so. Thus, he was forced to uncomfortable and unpersuasively spin the events of the day to be less than disastrous.

    I miss ya, ya big lug.

  • I can’t watch CNN’s election coverage because their set looks like a gay disco on an interstellar cruise ship. Very hard on the eyes.

    Will they call his segment The Snow Job?

  • Time out, twits. You have a typo in your name… Make that Carpetbuggers.

    Oh, and by the way…your required anti-spam measure reflects leftist mentality in answering the question: “What color is an orange?”

    Doofi (plural of doofus), at what stage of development / maturity? Possibly ‘orange’ or some hue variation depending upon species, soil, climate, and season….otherwise a shade of green similar to your knowledge base.

  • I say load up all the TeeVee corporate excuses for “news” with every right-wing wacko they can spring from the churches, jails and sewers. There they can preach to their choirs of knuckle-dragging, awe-struck viewers. The only media worth paying attention to are the prints and the blogs, i.e., those which require reading as opposed to mere gawking.

  • CNN—infotainment with commercials in between. And the best they could come up with is Tony Show? Sheesh, people—watching someone beat an onion into mush with a veg-o-matic would be more interesting. Grease dripping from a George Foreman grill would be more informing. Listening to the rantings of that guy covered with question-marks and hocking his book of free government information for 30 bucks would be more enlightening.

    Coober—your “cousin” just called. The outhouse needs fixing again….

  • I don’t think it’s a question of working the refs. I think the media ownership has a fundamentally right-wing outlook, and this is reflected in both staffing and coverage. IOW it looks like that because they want it to, not because they’ve made a mistake, or because they are being mau-maued.

    I dropped my cable a while back, in part because I couldn’t stomach sending a fee to Rupert Murdoch every month. The way it is currently set up, you can’t avoid supporting both him and CNN if you have basic cable (or basic satellite), so there’s no way to apply leverage against wingnut-supporting news choices other than by opting out completely. It’s as if you were required to subscribe to the Washington Times in order to get your local paper delivered.

    We need to have a usable a la carte pricing available for cable/satellite, at least WRT news choices. I shouldn’t have to pay money to Rupert Murdoch if I want to watch Keith Olbermann.

  • I turned teevee off over 10 years ago and haven’t turned it on since. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

  • This is CNN–the Conservative News Network. Why is anyone surprised.

    Conservatives are just upset that CNN still maintains some degree of journalistic integrity and doesn’t push the conservative agenda as strongly as the even more conservative Fox.

  • It’s called “balance;” it’s a good thing to have in the news. For every Donna Brazille, a Tony Snow. Somewhere between the two deluded blowhards lies the truth.

  • “Does CNN really need another conservative voice to spin the news?”

    short answer, yep

    folks are beginning to pay attention to that man behind the curtain

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