And, by corruption, I mean that it’s a really bad idea to stand downwind of it.
CNN’s latest “journalist”
From Steve Benin at the Washington Monthly:
March 16, 2010
THIS IS CNN?…. If I didn’t get independent confirmation of this, I honestly would have assumed the announcement was some elaborate practical joke. Alas, it’s true.
Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN’s new show John King, USA, the network announced Tuesday.
Erickson, a self described “obsessive news junkie” who grew up in Dubai and rural Louisiana, will also provide perspective and commentary on other programs across the network. [...]
“Erick’s a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach,” said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. “With Erick’s exceptional knowledge of politics, as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN’s ideologically diverse group of political contributors.”This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made. That the network probably reviewed Erickson’s work before hiring him, and offered him a job anyway, suggests CNN’s professional standards for what constitutes “an important voice” have all but disappeared… [MORE]
As Benin points out, Erickson’s grasp of the truth is tenuous at best, and he’s basically another ideological hack. RedState.com, for which he blogs, is entirely owned by Tom Phillips, publisher of Regnery Press, Eagle Publishing, Human Events magazine, American Spectator magazine (remember “Troopergate”?) first publisher of Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, publishers of Michael Barone, William “gambling for virtue” Bennett, Pat Buchanan, Bay Buchanan, Jerome Corsi (and that’s just A-C) etc. etc. etc.
Robert Novak sat on the Phillips Foundation’s board (until he died, which doesn’t necessarily mean that he isn’t still telecommuting from hell), along with “Wheel of Fortune”s Pat Sajak, who is a BIG contributor to the Phillips Foundation (and who’s been on the board of ’conservative’ Claremont Institute), about which I’ve written at length (the foundation, not the contribution). Here are two, but there are many more:
And, actually, not about the Pat Sajak connection at all until now. However, he DOES write lame opinion pieces for Tom Phillips’ Human Events Magazine, exempli gratia:
Gore Files Lawsuits Against Time [sic]
by Pat Sajak
Lawyers for former Vice President Al Gore have filed numerous lawsuits against Time magazine, alleging a series of voting irregularities they maintain deprived Gore of Time’s “Person of the Year” Award. It has been announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin received the 2007 award, with Gore finishing second. [...]
And, the tag (except the site has been scrubbed of all political content. Hmmm.):
*This was originally posted on Pat Sajak’s website.*
Mr. Sajak is the host of “Wheel of Fortune” and PatSajak.com.
Ha ha ha ha. The Stolen Election. Get it? Hyuck hyuck. (Or, to keep Republicans from being able to decipher it): The aforementioned title is an exemplar of Sajak’s half-measure of wit.
And, here’s an Erick Erickson special, preserved from my piece “How NOW, Angry Cow?” from 2008:
RedState, ever the collective masters of dumbassery had this to say:
Betrayal of the Female Reproductive Organ
By Erick [Erickson]As the Clintons and their supporters continue their destruction of the Democratic Party, we see the latest salvo fired from the thighs of ugly nags.
From the nether regions that see no men, New York’s National Association of Gals is out bashing Teddy Kennedy for endorsing Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton.
Ha ha ha ha. The C-word. Get it? Hyuck hyuck. (Or, to keep Republicans from being able to decipher it): The aforementioned title is an exemplar of Erickson’s half-measure of wit.
This is just one of hundreds — if not thousands — of blatantly misogynistic comments Erickson has made on RedState. You can bet if he’d made the same sorts of statements about Blacks, he’d have been cashiered long ago. (Even old Strom Thurmond had to learn to speak in “code.” )
The problem is not Erickson’s “take” on the news. The problem is that he’s just another Rightie Creationist: cherry-pick the facts to fit the ideology, and in the snarkiest terms possible. There is nothing that Erickson has ever written that qualifies him as a television pundit, save that the same brain-damaged management that decided to hire Glenn Beck for Headline News must still be in positions of power … that is destroying CNN as a credible news organization.
See last week’s: CNN gets Astroturfed in story on Astroturf.
But the Phillips Foundation now has planted Erick Erickson with CNN. Draw your own conclusions.
Now, I have a little bone to pick with Steve Benin, however. He states:
This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made.
Nope. Hiring Glenn Beck and giving him his own Headline News show was easily the worst decision that CNN ever made. This is just a sort of post-fascist belch.
Ha ha ha ha. The Propaganda Machine. Get it? Hyuck hyuck. (Or, to keep Republicans from being able to decipher it): The aforementioned photo is an exemplar of Beck’s half-measure of wit.
(You might also want to check out Echidne of the Snakes’ bravura take on it.)
Courage.
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