Moe Lane

Found here.  Short version: the Democrats are gonna suddenly cram in another town hall. Why? Well, to quote myself: “The Democratic party Establishment does not want to run a white, old, socialist-loving ideologue… but they want to run Bernie Sanders even less.”

It didn’t even win its time slot (note: there is an ever-so-slightly esoteric debate as to whether that statement is true). Total viewership was 2.4 million, which is great news for CNN and no-so-great news for Barack Obama and everybody else who’d like to take your guns away.  And yes, I don’t believe Barack Obama when he says that he doesn’t want to take people’s guns away. I may not worry about it – based on Barack Obama’s past history, any confiscation scheme of his is likely to somehow take all of Uruguay’s guns and distribute them across the British Commonwealth – but that’s because I’m not impressed with the President’s basic competence level.

Anyway. I should probably apologize to CNN: they apparently let people take legitimate smacks at the President’s, ah, flawed logic. I didn’t expect that CNN would do that.  My apologies for the unwarranted assumption.

Even the NRA apparently checked out, much to the President’s barely-throttled fury:

“The National Rifle Association sees no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told the network [CNN].

You can definitely detect a sneer in the NRA spokesman’s voice, there. Possibly even a sniff of disdain. Which is precisely the way that one should act in this situation.  This is Barack Obama’s last year as President. His job is to stay the heck out of the way and let people get on the with the business of electing a new leadership, and while I certainly don’t mind the President making life hell for Democrats I suppose that the Democrats themselves might have a different opinion. And maybe eventually they’ll even be brave enough to express that opinion, too.

I mention this not because I plan to watch it, because I won’t; nor because I expect any of you plan to watch it, because I doubt that many of you will. I mention it because maybe some day somebody might actually try to ding CNN for making this kind of in-kind contribution to the Democratic party. Every little bit of a proper evidence trail helps.

Desperation makes for an awful cologne: “Vice President Biden could qualify to participate in the first Democratic debate even if he did not decide to enter the race until debate day, according to participation criteria released by  host organization CNN on Monday.” Jazz Shaw over at Hot Air concentrated on how this position is showing special consideration for Joe Biden, which it totally is. But putting aside the question of why Democratic primary candidates are being treated in a gentler fashion than Republican candidates were*… there’s a question here over just why CNN wants Joe Biden on that stage. Why CNN needs Joe Biden on that stage. (more…)

Smart of them: “CNN is amending the criteria for its Republican presidential debate on September 16, possibly opening the door for Carly Fiorina to join the other top-tier candidates on the stage.” But here’s the buried lede:

As of Tuesday, only three polls recognized by CNN have been released, and it appears there will not be enough to make a fair editorial judgment before the September 16th debate, according to the network.

The network said that from August through mid-September 2007, there were 16 polls released. During the same period in 2011, 15 polls were released. Based on previous poll releases, CNN created its original criteria.

…Interesting. I knew that the polling was sparse; but I hadn’t realized that it was THAT sparse. Very, very interesting…

Nice of them to let us know; we might have not have noticed the difference, otherwise*.

CNN is producing a political game show, TVNewser has learned. The blocking and testing of the show is happening this week at CNN’s New York studios.

Insiders tell us the show will be hosted byAnderson Cooper and will air on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 16. If it’s successful, further episodes would go into production.

(more…)

To wit: CNN needs to get off of social media. Most people should, really.

Screenshot, before it's memory-holed, and yes this head is going on the family wall. pic.twitter.com/iDznxxuwIY

— Popehat (@Popehat) January 4, 2015

Basically, Popehat runs a parody ‘official’ North Korean Twitter feed: he uses it to idly see which actual news organizations fall for it. Today, CNN fell. Because most people and groups need to get off of social media.

I’m sorry for so many posts on a Scottish referendum vote that doesn’t actually have any authority to it unless Her Majesty’s Government abides by the results, but this is, as people note, peak CNN:

At least no matter what Scotland decides, they are giving it 110%. #ScotlandDecides #CNN pic.twitter.com/fl9dzQlaYL

— Brady (@burninggoats) September 18, 2014

That has got to be the single most useless graphic that I have seen all day. Usually even when there’s an error you can at least make a guess at what it was trying to say; but not here! Oh, my, no.

Via Ed Driscoll.

I will believe it when I see it, but that’s the buzz right now: “[CNN’s John King was] told the Florida special election results were the last straw for at least two and perhaps more House Democrats facing tough 2014 races.” The problem with that is that it’s late for retirements; primary season has already started and at this point anybody who retires is going to put his or her party through an unseemly scramble to find a replacement. Pulling this on the Democratic party would be highly obnoxious, in other words; and while I don’t personally care I can still say that it’s not very professional to put your caucus through that sort of thing. (more…)