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CNN's political coverage has been a hot topic on this forum for a long time, and the CNN Democratic debate, moderated by Judy Woodruff, ratcheted things up even higher. We know that Bill Schneider, CNN's "Senior Political Analyst," is a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, and, one assumes, on the payroll of both AEI and CNN -- and that CNN does not share with its viewers, except in his website bio, Mr. Schneider's political agenda. We see with our own eyes Ms. Woodruff's distaste for any guest who criticizes George W. Bush, and we witnessed her rude and inapppropriate treatment of Democratic candidates at the debate -- eg., interrupting, and dictating topics to, a group that included U.S. Senators and a former Supreme Allied Commander. We heard Jeff Greenfield's hostile questions. Howard Kurtz's Sunday Republican talking points are disguised as media commentary. And no one has forgotten Candy Crowley's blatant partisanship in 2000, while covering GWB, who charmed her by calling her by her name in Spanish -- and she's back on the trail in 2004, covering DEMOCRATS. Nor has anyone forgotten CNN's constant underming of Al Gore in 2000, or its cheerleading for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We understand Fox's agenda; MSNBC is a flailing upstart. But CNN should do better. When it went on the air, it changed the world with one man's vision. It advertises itself as "America's Most Trusted News Source." So who or what, if anything -- besides corporate ownership,(possibly misguided)lust for Fox-like ratings, and Beltway social-climbing -- is responsible for CNN's being completely in the tank for George Bush?
Does anyone know anything about CNN's political director Tom Hannon? Web searches seeking his professional background, and possible political agenda, turned up only a reference to a "Tom Hannon" who participated in a l984 meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing outfit founded by the Hunt brothers and T. Cullen Davis in Texas -- surely not the same Tom Hannon. Anybody have a clue about the man who presumably sets the tone for CNN's political coverage?
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