CNN's Wolf Blitzer Lapdogs While Senator Hatch Lies

This week, Wolf Blitzer interviewed Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT). I watched dumbfounded as Hatch lied, and Blitzer obediently chose not to challenge the Senator. It's the same lapdog reporting that enabled Bush & Co. to marshal public support for war in Iraq, to torture and spy, and allows politicians to continue to lie with impunity. Tough luck if you thought the last eight years would give guys like Blitzer a backbone.

Hatch: "... the president has finally recognized that what really has caused this (mortgage crisis) wasn't the Bush administration, it was Wall Street, it was Fannie and Freddie."

Most Americans are not political junkies. They rely on Blitzer to use his knowledge and position to cut through the bull and tell the real story. But Blitzer is not a reporter; he is a news reader who ignores facts and sticks to the next scripted question: "Will Utah accept stimulus money?"

Here's what Wolf needed to ask: "On what basis are you claiming, Senator Hatch, that President Barack Obama believes that the Bush administration is free of blame for the subprime crisis? And on what basis do you assert that the Bush administration is free of blame for the crisis considering that Bush's Securities and Exchange Commission quietly passed an exemption to a regulation in 2004 that limited the amount of debt that investment banks could take on?" These are the same banks that have received billions in taxpayer money - one of them was Goldman Sachs, led by Henry Paulson until he took over Bush's Treasury Department two years later.

Blitzer would probably say that his job is to present news, give members of each major party equal airtime, and let the public decide. But when you conduct an interview without another guest to provide counterpoint, it is the host's responsibility to cite facts and expose spin. And don't give me the "we had members of both parties on the show" myth. Both parties are awash in cash from corporate lobbyists that compromises their integrity. Yet they continue to get most of the airtime while real experts like economists and public interest advocates are largely ignored. Just look at the bank bailout if you need proof.

Blitzer-style lapdog reporting and the 10-second soundbyte-ification of important news by commercial television - with a few notable exceptions - is the biggest reason that the American public continues to be fundamentally misinformed, and led time and again to support policies and politicians that hurt - rather than help - the public interest. The media's failure to hold the powerful accountable is, along with the corrupting influence of money in politics, the biggest threat to the future of our democracy and our nation.

Those on the far end of the spectrum on both the left and right have their go-to news outlets. But self-identified moderates go for their news to channels like CNN, where unchallenged lies become truth in the mind of a public deprived of skepticism, watchdogging and tough questioning. The danger of an unquestioning press is exacerbated as newspapers continue their financial freefall, laying off reporters by the thousands, and atrophying the most reliable source of investigative journalism.

Blitzer: "If it (bank bailout) requires more than the total $700 billion, are you with the administration on that?"

Hatch: "Some of the big problems with this so-called fiscal stimulus bill, number one, it was totally partisan. The first two bills out of the shot, the chip bill and the so-called stimulus bill were purely partisan bills. We were willing to work with them."

Now I'm not here to defend Democrats, but there are several major stimulus concessions that President Obama and his congressional allies made in an effort to gain Republican support. Those included reduced total spending, increased tax credits, and reductions in family planning and Medicaid spending. Hatch's rhetoric, combined with remarkable Republican unity opposing the stimulus is obviously (even to Blitzer) a smart gamble by the GOP to abdicate their duty to lead the nation out of crisis, and place responsibility for reviving the economy squarely on Obama's shoulders. Expect inflation and higher taxes down the road, and tee up a "we told you so" when they make their bid to regain power.

Without fearless, vigilant questioning, spin masters like Hatch will turn Bush's financial crisis into Obama's financial crisis in a few months rather than a few years. Without tough reporting from the people who are our eyes and ears in Washington, Americans will remain mired in an ignorance that will force us to repeat history by way of more unnecessary wars, more government corruption, and more elections of politicians who legislate against our interests.

As goes critical journalism, so goes our democracy.

Comments

[IllinoisTexan43]

Ahhh, I love the smell of corporate television in the morning.......

[MPeter]

Blitzer is one of the most unprofessional talking heads on the air. Anyone who watched him during the primaries can remember how he used to plant Clinton supporters in the audience to ask questions. He would always go out of his way to try and trip Mr. Obama. Remember how he kept premise his questions with 'assuming you can't do it...Until Mr. Obama told him to stop making foolish assumptions. Blitzer is a sad joke.

[jerzyjc16]

Wolf is utterly useless as a journalist. He's more of a moderator of talking points for each side. It's mind-blowing that it's not even possible to determine from watching the news whether or not there is a provision for a high speed LA/Vegas train in the stimulus package. You can't really tell from watching Wolf (and he's too lazy, as is CNN to even bother to find out) if there is such a provision. CNN is too lazy to even find out what "volcano monitoring" is, or why it's important or irrelevant. Or how many jobs actually would be created by funding family planning and contraception. Or not. What we face as viewers are two sets of facts presented with the presenter of the two sets of contradictory facts unwilling to even try to find out what is true or not true. I mean there either is or isn't a high-speed train to Vegas in the stimulus bill. How can we not know??????

[Emerald1943]

I pretty much quit watching CNN during the campaign this last year. It was so obvious that CNN was headed to the right. Jack Cafferty is the only redemption! Lou Dobbs really Pi@@sed me off with his sneering comments about Obama! I'd bet that if the truth was known, CNN has lost a lot of its regular viewers!

Being a bit of a news junki e, I found MSNBC and have not been disappointed, although I realize they are not unbiased themselves. At least, Keith and Rachel do try to let us have the unvarnished truth.

[localboy]

100% agree. Not a news junkie until the campaign last year. Thought that CNN was a good news source but got turned off by Lou Dobbs rants and the right wing slant by most of talking heads. Some good people still there but Wolf & King are starting to look like empty-suit game show hosts.

MSNBC and especially Keith & Rachel are much better for news (and entertainment).

[CeeLee]

COME enterprizing REAL hard hitting journalists should start a new show called "Punt the PUNDITS" where a real dialog is DAILY offered about the skill, accuracy and validity of ALL The current HIGHLY paid Punditry on MSNBC, CNN, FOX, and CNBC etc.

[mcfried]

The bottom line is Wolf is a terrible journalist. I started noticing during the primary and stopped watching. That said, I don't think his problem is bias, like some here suggest, but rather stupidity, laziness and a love of gossip that rivals Perez Hilton. If you look at the number of hours he is on he could easily inform the American public by simply having independent experts on even for a small % of the time. Instead he reports the gossip and stupid talking points. If he actually discussed the issues and did research that would require work and IQ points he does not possess.

[pfrogger]

Is anyone with an education higher than 5th grade surprised by this. The entertainment media has been fabricating the "truth" for years. In the sake of journalistic balance they present two sides as being equally credible when they are not equally credible. The job of the "news" is no longer "facts", it's to allow opinion-based rhetoric.

http://www.netfeed.com/~jhill/RupertMurdoch.htm - FLORIDA COURT RULING SAYS MEDIA CAN LEGALLY LIE (April 03, 2003)
"The Court of Appeals, in its six page written decision, held that the Federal Communications Commission's position against news distortion is only a "policy", not a
promulgated law, rule or regulation."

Frankly if there are people still stupid enough to listen to the entertainment media and actually take it as fact-based news then they get what they deserve.
As for the masses who do actually listen to this nonsense, I say "good night and good luck", you're going to need it.

[lovable]

I JUST WISH SOMEONE WOULD GO ON TV AND MAKE THESE SO CALLED INTERVIEWRS STOP ALLOWING THESE LIES!!!!!!!!!

[OhioObamaVoter]

Blitzer reads his cue cards, teleprompter, etc. He seems to have no real knowledge of what is going on and refuses to really interview anyone. Larry King is more of a reporter! HA

[wendynyc]

I heard Sen Ensign lie yesterday as well - trying to blame the financial crisis on Fannie and Freddie and the Dems.

These guys are shameless. They need to be stopped.

It is amazing how much time they are given on television to mislead the American People.

[LeeHInAlexandria]

Senator Hatch did not lie about the subprime crisis. If the author was smart and did some digging, maybe he'd look up the CRA. Which was passed under Carter and enforced under Clinton. There is a lot of blame to go around for this including to President Bush and to President Obama (then Senator Obama). But to completely blame Bush is a lie.

[KarenGeorgetown]

Um.... George really, really, really, really broke everything he touched. Yes, perhaps he didn't didn't invent all the tools he was able to exploit, but once in he and Cheney grabbed power like it was a banana republic, emptied our treasury, and commenced breaking everything for the advancement of other rich cronies. And, hooray!! They're gone!

[bhadkat]

see...the problem with the whole "Blame CRA" talking point is the overwhelming majority of loans that went bad had nothing to do with the CRA, but were due to lenders loaning to borrowers who would never qualify for a mortgage under CRA, as their assets were too great. Mortgages made under CRA have an extremely low default rate, compared to those mortgages made with subprime lenders.

[lovbug]

i only watch msnbc rachel maddow, keith olberman and sometimes chris matthews, even though i think he's been kinda lame recently. these are the only smart people on cable tv that does not need talking points and talking heads to carry their show. i abandoned cnn awhile ago.

[inwonderland]

Bravo and FINALLY affirmation of what I have believed since CNN was named the Clinton News Network.

Wolf Blitzer agonized during the Primaries and the General Election, as blatantly pro-Hillary
and anti-Obama. That tone has been reduced, but Blitzer is in mourning and not through the grief process over the win of Barack Obama.

The ONLY saving grace of CNN and of Blitzer is Jack Cafferty, and from time to time John King strikes some smart chords. (though his wife, Dana Bash, is clearly on the GOP side of things).

If David Gergen was not on CNN, the entire network would be useless.

I can only thank Mr. Silver for articulating the evidence of Blizter bias, alive and well, but no longer on Sundays.

Hmmmmm maybe we are not alone in seeing the Blitzer bias!

[silverball]

..i'm with you about david gergen....he's worked for pesidents of both parties and is usually very astute in his observatio­ns....some­times when he speaks about obama his eyes sparkle...­...because of his oval office experience he understands how obama is doing and he knows its about WE, THE PEOPLE with obama......and he very much approves the tone of obama's efforts.....

[tandrmcdonald]

Couldn't help but notice the advertisement at the right side of the page. "The Minds That Move the World." Speaker Series 2009. Why is a picture of Ann Coulter shown anywhere near the word mind?
GrammaRose

[tandrmcdonald]

Orin Hatch lies; Blitzer lapdogs... OMG what a surprise!