Why I don't watch CNN

OK, I don't watch all that much television. But I haven't watched CNN in years, and last night I discovered my happy accident.

I've had my gripes with MSNBC sponsored debates/forums, but they were pretty mild - and as far as I'm concerned - par for the course.

But CNN clearly wanted a food fight with a home team favorite, and they pulled it off.

I should have been clued in when I tuned in a bit early, and listened to Lou Dobbs and two people I don't know telling me what I'm concerned about and how the candidates aren't addressing it. I'm told we have an illegal alien crisis! Who knew? Somehow I missed that. As these three shouted at each other, it became clear that they were talking to each other and not many others. They appeared not to know what they were talking about.

Then came the Wolfman. He kicked us off with a manno a wommanno Clinton vs. Obama main event. Clinton got off a few scripted low blows (the challenger is taller) and then treated John Ewards (also a bit taller) to the same later.

Unlike previous debate/forums no decorum on the part of the audience was requested or (apparently) desired. I've heard rumors the Clinton campaign tried to buy up most of the recent Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner tickets, but got caught at it. I though of that as I noticed the "undecideds" in the Las Vegas event were curiously pro-Hillary. And as the camera panned the audience, I noticed quite a sizable number of empty seats at the edges of the room.

Lost in all this infotainment nonsense were good performances by Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. Dennis K. seemed to decide to join Bill R. in the Clinton Greek chorus (he's nothing if not erratic).

This event was a mess, and a complete waste of everyone's time.

I was curious to know the reaction of Obama supporters. Barrack had a couple slips, but I thought he did pretty well and seemed to do better at staking out his own ground. Unfortunately, the Obama website does not allow for supporters posting directly, so I didn't find out.

The Edwards community, who does post directly, is spitting nails. I've never seem so many of them so riled up.

But...It's just one event.

And now we know, it's not just the Faux News Channel that's into sensationalism.

Don Wheeler

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Here's an update from someone who was in the audience:


Tonight's debate

by: Greg Brown

Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 23:54:51 PM PST

(It's hard for me to disagree with what Greg is saying here. I'll have more on this in a debate wrap up in a little while. - promoted by Sven)

I was at tonight's debate and really appalled by the audience behavior. There was a lot of inappropriate cheering and even more inappropriate booing that interrupted candidates during their responses.

The fault for that lies with CNN and with us, Nevada Democrats. I think it particularly lies with the tendency of the Clinton campaign to turn every event into a rally rather than a disucssion. I don't think they intended for their supporters to behave this way but be under no illusion -- it was the Clinton supporters, only a part of the crowd, who were booing Obama and Edwards.

The coup de grace came at the end, when CNN -- which had made a big deal of vetting the questions to avoid having anyone who could be tied to any of the campaigns (as if having knowledge of the candidates' platforms and a preference among them renders one unable to pose a question). Then, they select only a handful of those to pose questions that were vetted ahead of time. After all that, they give the last question to a student who asks the most embarrassingly superficial question, possibly in American presidential history.

Tonight was an embarrassment for the Nevada Democratic Party.

And this from the Daily Kos:



Las Vegas Disgrace

by LV Pol Girl

Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 09:06:55 AM PST

I am so disappointed with the Democratic Party of Nevada. These folks are not Democrats, they're Hillary supporters. The audience was an embarrassment and I am ashamed to be from this city. No wonder we elect mob lawyers for Mayor.

The audience was basically divided into two sections. One side was UNLV, the well behaved section and the other section was the Hillary (oops, I meant the DNC) section. The DNC section is where I was seated and it was filled with Hillary supporters. The guy next to me said he was for Edwards and lied, because the only person he cheered for was Hillary. Loud, obnoxious, women were sitting behind me that talked throughout the debate and sneered "trial lawyer" every time Edwards spoke and called Obama "arrogant". I wanted to turn around and tell them that I guess they didn't have the nerve to call him "uppity".

LV Pol Girl's diary :: ::

The Democratic Party in this State is controlled by two people, Rory Reid, who was its past Chairman and Dina Titus, who ran for Governor in '06. The same Dina Titus that lost to the most incompetent politician in Nevada politics, in a year that the Democrats swept into office. This State's Party is in disarray and the '06 election is proof enough for everyone paying attention. All the people seated around me were given tickets by the Party and the ones I talked with said that they worked in Dina Titus' campaign for Governor. Rory Reid and Dina Titus are Hillary's biggest backers in this State and will use their control over this Party to win the caucus for her.

The audience that were around me behaved like they were at a boxing match at Caesar's Palace, cheering for Hillary and booing her two closest opponents, John Edwards and Barack Obama. Real Democrats don't boo Democrats.

Obama and Edwards looked like they backed off and just sat this one out, since they were not allowed to contrast themselves against Hillary. The audience members weren't informed, sophisticated Democrats, who could make their own decisions. They were followers who want to be in the lead. Our lousy Party leaders in this State, who could not win an election that the Democrats dominated in '06, are leading them.

I came out of the event solid Obama, loving Kucinich and respecting Edwards.