"At last," I thought, "A gavel to gavel convention with just the facts." As Sen. Ted Kennedy took the platform to speak and as he spoke, CNN did just as it promised. It broadcast his speech Live! and Unfiltered! The evening was promising.
However, it didn't take long for the network to shift its focus and exercise Attention Deficit Disorder. After the senator from Massachusetts spoke, others also took the platform to make their speeches. All of a sudden, the expert commentators at CNN began to speak out and criticize the choice of speakers and the message of the convention. A couple of them complained about Jim Leach's speech. All of this was done with the commentators' sound bites drowning out the speaker.
The panel of commentators then offered their suggestions for what the Democrats should be doing on prime time television. Everybody is an expert on somebody else's business these days, it seems.
Not only that, but CNN took the liberty to cut away and show commercials and promos, something that interloped between the promised gavel to gavel bookend coverage.
So what CNN did was the exact opposite of what the graphic promised. Live? Yes. Unfiltered? No, as long as commentators "filter" what is being said on the floor. Gavel to gavel? No, as long the network breaks away for commercials.
Oh well. Two out of three ain't bad.
Bro. David,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it is a sign of the times - people need someone to interpret what others say for them!
OK - being a tad factitious - I don't really believe people need others to filter what they know. But, it would seem that CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NY Times, and others believe you should listen to them, not to the original speaker. Case in point - actually had someone on a blog tell me NOT to read the original transcript of the discussion with R. Warren, Sen. Obama, and Sen. McCain - that to read the original would not "give the full intention of the speakers."
I constantly remain in trouble here, because when someone comes with a question starting out "What does XXX mean in this Scripture?", I invariably turn it back on them and ask "What do YOU think it means?"
OK - enough rambling...guess my point is - when did Americans begin needing interpreters for everything, and stop applying their own knowledge and ability to the understanding of issues and life?
I think you are dead on. It must have happened when people stopped thinking and let others do it for them.
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