When Did CNN Go Over To The Dark Side?

[redstateblues]

They used to be somewhat evenhanded. Did they finally try to counter G. Gordon Liddy calling them the Commie News Network? Is this about trying to compete with FOX? Whassup?

[My Pet Goat]

1. Probably around the time they union busted

their shop.

[MissB]

2. When Turner sold it. (nt)

[goclark]

8. What was the real reason he sold CNN?

Something was fishy to me.

[redstateblues]

14. Unfortunately Ted Turner Loves Money Too Much. I'll bet he regrets

selling it now. He could have been a real hero. Between this and losing Jane Fonda Ted must be a miserable soul.

[WillyT]

32. Supposedly He Tried To Buy It Back A While Ago (I Think) !!!

Couldn't meet the new asking price as I recall.

Anybody else know what the deal was on this?

:shrug:

[0007]

35. Turner didn't lose Jane Fonda, he dumped her.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. When they figured out that they could get more ad revenue

by pandering to the ruling class. It makes the world go round.

[Technowitch]

4. I may have been behind the times...

...but I figured CNN had gone to the "Dark Side" when they hired all those retired generals and other military dinks MONTHS in advance of when Shrub launched his illegal war of aggression against Iraq. And started running all those commercials trumpeting the fact they had these 'steely-eyed men and women' (mostly men) ready to do the 'expert analyses.'

I mean, you don't put a whole bunch of people like that on retainer if your journalistic hope isn't that there will be war.

[WLKjr]

5. They kept Novak, so why even bother to ask that question

you should have already figured it out when he outed a CIA agent.

[redstateblues]

11. I figured they were waiting for the indictments. Novak is a blight

on Humanity. I do admire Al Hunt and Margaret Carlson for not cutting him any slack. But I almost can't watch anymore.

[Zomby Woof]

6. late 80's

During the Reagan era they were promoting how COOL his SDI program would be, showing these cheesy cartoons of our missiles blowing up Russkie missiles. By the power of suggestion, they felt that this was a swell expenditure of our tax dollars. They loved Bush Sr too. Always ran footage unflattering of the Dems... etc etc.

They have always sucked, it's just that some of us noticed 15 years before others.

[Melodybe]

7. When Ted Turner sold it in 1996, right about the time of Monicagate.

Turner is still a dissenting voice on the board of AOL but he welds no power in any of the companies directions.

AOL is also largely owned by the Saudis, any right leaning tendencies come from them.

ARG I wish everyone in the country knew that CNN are Saudi whores.

[SharonAnn]

30. AOL's Steve Case is very, very right-wing if I recall correctly.

Kind of Ayn Randian, kind of "supply side", etc.

[tinanator]

39. colin powell's child porn billionaire buddy?

he should be in jail.

[ParanoidPat]

9. When Army PSY-OPS got involved.......

.......Read this thread! :evilgrin:

D5E:destruction, degradation, denial, disruption, deceit, and exploitation

CONCEPT PAPER


Working Group on Preventive and Preemptive Military Intervention


William W. Keller and Gordon R. Mitchell1
Project Coordinators

<Snip>

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for an FBI investigation into the forgery of documents cited by President Bush and Secretary Powell as proof of Iraq’s nuclear transactions with Niger. As Rockefeller explained in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller: “There is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq.”26

The timeliness of Rockefeller’s proposed inquiry was underscored by the appearance of official documents that lay out official American deception plans: "In a document last autumn, the joint chiefs of staff stressed the need for strategic deception and influence operations as tools of war. The army, navy and air force have been directed to devise plans for information warfare."27

According to defense analyst William Arkin, the Bush strategy lays out goals for information warfare that pursue D5E: "destruction, degradation, denial, disruption, deceit, and exploitation." Arkin notes that the wide array of sites and ractices of information control brought into the range of this policy "blurs or even erases the boundaries between factual information and news, on the one hand, and public relations, propaganda and psychological warfare on the other."28

This fusion of military deception programs with media propaganda efforts enabled the Office of Strategic Influence to commission officers from the U.S. Army's Psychological Operations Command to work as interns in the news division of CNN.29

Eventually, the Bush Administration was burned by the political heat generated when the Office of Strategic Influence was leaked to the media. The ensuing firestorm of controversy prompted Secretary Rumsfeld to close the propaganda unit. Yet less than a year later, Rumsfeld stipulated that his action had only been symbolic, and that information warfare missions were still underway at other Pentagon offices: And then there was the Office of Strategic Influence. You may recall that.
And “oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall.” I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing, fine, I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.30

The political implications of blurring military strategic deception and public sphere propaganda are worth exploring, given Arkin's concerns about military deception that "while the policy ostensibly targets foreign enemies, its most likely victim will be the American electorate."31

<More>

[DenverDem]

18. We had army "interns" when I was a producer for World Championship

Wrestling 89-95 (WCW was owned by Turner Sports at the time).

The fuckers used to sit in the production truck while I was directing live to tape shows. They were supposed to just be learning live television production, but it sure weirded me out. They never said anything, just watched.

Pro wrestling is prototypical for the power elite control of the two party system. The fans (marks/electorate) think they are watching a battle between a good guy (baby face/Democrat) and a bad guy (heel/publican) but the outcome is really predetermined by a booker or booking committee (power elite) in the dressing room (Washington D.C.) where both the heel and the baby face showered together (Skull and Bones). So maybe the disinfo officers were just honing their craft of "the work" (scam) by watching us put together wrestling shows. My show, WCW Saturday Night was the highest rated show on TBS the whole six years I was there. It would double the numbers the Braves or Hawks would pull. The real sports producers hated us in the wrestling company because of that.

[ParanoidPat]

31. That analogy is closer than you may think!

:evilgrin: :kick:

[DenverDem]

33. No, I think it is exactly accurate.

Weird, but there it is.

[tinanator]

40. WWF and all that were definitely some sort of Op

Look at where WWF was based. Look at the new expectations they set for Americans. "We are lying to you, this isnt real, you will watch and be entertained, never questioning the context"
That has always been obvious to me

"Demons set forth, to lower the standards, of the perfect and holy children of God, which is what we are, make no mistake about it!"
RIP Bill

[redstateblues]

10. Maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention, but it seems

that in the last few months they have gotten much worse.

[NightOwwl]

19. I think you are right.

And beginning with the coverage of the convention it has been despicable.

[Democat]

12. When Ted Turner sold

It's that simple I think.

[AntiCoup2K4]

13. When they got bought out by AOL.

There's a reason AOL's located in close proximity to the CIA.

[redstateblues]

16. Bingo- Stop Making Sense!

[fujiyama]

15. They've been whores for a while

Like in '91, along with the rest of the media they didn't do anything when Cheney, who was secretary of defense at the time, made a concerted effort during the Gulf War to restrict footage.

Remember all those great shots they showed of Patriot missiles? It was really misleading because they were far less accurate than shown.

So, I think it's nothing new. It's just got worse and worse over the years. Once Fox entered in '96, they found the perfect excuse to become more blatant.

[democracyindanger]

17. When Walter Issacson

met with several Republican members of Congress to ask for ideas about how CNN could be more "balanced." True story.

[Cha]

20. Well, in 2000 they donated this to bush...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2134891


"TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL (donated 1.6 million to GW's 2000 campaign)
America Online (AOL) acquired Time Warner–the largest merger in corporate history.
Television Holdings:
* CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Turner Classic Movies, Warner Brothers Television, Cartoon Network, Sega Channel, TNT, Comedy Central (50%), E! (49%), Court TV (50%)."

[redstateblues]

22. You have answered the question. But I think they have waited

until it looked like Kerry was going to win before they started to stop him. Evildoers.

[Tight_rope]

21. As far as I'm concerned CNN is the "DARKSIDE"! Don't go there!

[redstateblues]

23. Old habits are Hard To Break. Somebody Stop Me From Checking Out Drudge

[agincourt]

24. They went from sucks,

to worse around the end of the operation in afghanistan. I know some taliban xtian fundies who pick CNN over Fox, because Fox runs some sleazy shows on their regular network. They get the same propaganda with a little less pizzaz.

[Bush was AWOL]

25. They are at an all time low right now

They were not this bad a couple of months ago.

I honestly think they are worse than Faux.

[redstateblues]

29. It has recently gotten unbearable. I'm done with them

[HawkerHurricane]

26. Corporate News Network?

Always been right wing. Just because it's more balanced than Fox does not make it balanced.

During deployments, we used to have a choice of news programs: Fox and CNN. And I always said, all the views from far right to middle right.

[JI7]

27. CNN is worse than Fox in many ways

because there seems to be an understanding among most that fox news is a right wing station. it's a joke.nobody really takes it seriously and the "fair and balanced" thing is always made fun of.

but CNN is seen as being more credible when most of the times it isn't. and it's very whorish. there are many moderate types who could easily see fox news as being whores for bush but they view cnn as being more credible so their disgusting attacks on democrats are taken more seriously.

[0007]

36. The White House uses CNN as their hot line now because of the

heat on FAUX.

[DeepModem Mom]

37. That is VERY perceptive, 0007, and could be the answer...

to the riddle of the sharp turn to the right. Rove has very possibly applied the screws to CNN, bigtime, because Fox has been pretty effectively "outed" as a propaganda arm of the WH.

[RodneyCK2]

28. This is a funny article...

and appropriate for this topic.

http://www.americandaily.com/article/3036

[Walt Starr]

34. Biggest investors are the Saudi Royal family

so the Saudis are controlling what gets said.

[GiovanniC]

38. CNN Has Been Bad For Years

But it was a barely tolerable bad. It was like 75% Republican bullshit, 15% stupid who-gives-a-shit bullshit (Laci, Kobe, MJ, OJ) and that sweet, sweet 10% where a Democratic voice like Carville squeaks through.

Last week, when the convention ramped up, they went full-blown 115% Republican Demon-Psycho. They out-FOXed FOX News. Check it out for yourself:

FOX News Analyst Brit Hume:
"John Kerry will be accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for President later this week. We'll ask Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes what America can expect from the Pinko-Commie America Hater."


CNN Analyst Judy Woodruff
"John Kerry will be accepting the DEMON-CRAP Party's nomination for President later this week. Coming up, we'll talk to an expert panel of Republicans, Demon-craps, and FAR RIGHT-WING Republicans. Joining me are Rick "man-on-dog" Santorum" and John "man-on-box-turtle" Cornyn. We'll also talk to Fred "God-hates-fags" Barnes, and Jerry "Tinky-Winky-is-a-fag-that-God-hates-and-that-caused-9/11" Falwell. Finally, to balance our panel out, we'll be joined by Democratic Senators Joe "Joementum" Lieberman and Zell "I-worship-at-the-altar-of-Bush" Miller. We will ask why John Kerry loves terrorists and wants Osama bin Laden to kill Americans. We'll also talk about what a flip-flopper Kerry is, and we'll talk about his Breck girl running mate's sordid trial-lawyer ambulance chaser history. Then, we'll discuss how John Kerry is rich because he married a rich heiress and by the way, we'll be talking about her *SHOCKING* and completely inappropriate language toward a journalist. We'll also see if anyone can figure out what makes this liberal Massachusetts senator with Hollywood values think he can defeat our heroic war leader. Back to you, Wolf."

[AlinPA]

41. At the beginning of the Iraq invasion. (I finally removed CNN from my

list of channels that my remote can go to on CH up , CH down.)