Eric Boehlert: Rick Santorum and CNN's long history of sponsoring GOP prejudice

[babylonsister]

https://pressrun.media/p/rick-santorum-and-cnns-ugly-history

Rick Santorum and CNN's long history of sponsoring GOP prejudice
Cut him loose
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


snip//

Santorum has been a staple of ignorance for years at CNN — in 2018 he cheered a report that Trump had tried to bury a government report on climate change, insisting, "A lot of these scientists are driven by money."

That same year he made hateful and foolish comments about students trying to change gun laws after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that," Santorum said, incredibly.

CNN's professional embrace of a bigot like Santorum highlights the branding conundrum the network faces — CNN wants to position itself as occupying the center of American politics, which means CNN has to have conservative voices on to match liberal voices so it can stage Both Sides debates. (Think: Crossfire format.) For decades, that worked for the network.

And on paper, there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is trying to find honest conservatives in the GOP that's been remade in the image of Trump.


It's not up to CNN and other media players to hire and platform bad actors like Santorum simply because the conservative movement is filled with so many bad actors. All news outlets ought to have easily identifiable standards, and if paid contributors can't meet those standards, they should not be associated with the network. Being pro-genocide ought to be an easy demarcation line for CNN.

snip//

Over the years, CNN tried hiring lots of Trump loyalists who chewed up the cable news scenery, spreading lie after preposterous lie, including ones spun by Jason Miller, Jack Kingston, Ed Martin, Jeffrey Lord, and Corey Lewandowski, among others. None of them, to be generous, covered the network in glory. Following the Parkland school shooting, Kingston told CNN viewers that students who rallied against gun violence were being taken advantage of by "left-wing gun control activists" led by billionaire George Soros.

Santorum’s attempt to erase both Native American culture and white settlers’ mass killings ought be reason enough for CNN to show him the door.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Brian Williams' remark on Santorum's "alternate facts" -- "There's the History Channel, and ...

... there's Drunk History."

[Sherman A1]

2. CNN and the rest of the cable infotainment

Drama TV are pretty much useless. I fail to understand why so much credence and time is given these “networks.”

[malaise]

3. Well said

Rec