Paula Zahn said to Joe Biden "Welcome to the Catholic Hour."

[DemBones DemBones]

Interesting that the top three candidates, all Protestant, were interviewed first, in the same auditorium, with Soledad O'Brien doing the interviewing, in front of a large audience. They should have given all seven candidates the opportunity to be there.

Now, Biden, Dodd, Kucinich, and Richardson are being interviewed by Paula Zahn.

Biden was not in the studio and he got only SIX MINUTES compared to the FIFTEEN MINUTES each alloted to Edwards, Obama, and Clinton.

Richardson was up next, also not in the studio, and also getting SIX MINUTES.

Dodd is in the studio now.


I'll be writing CNN to tell them I don't appreciate their treatment of Catholics as second class citizens.

[AngryOldDem]

1. I don't think it's necessarily bias...

...unless it's political bias. Once again the media are dictating the face-time of the perceived front-runners, never mind the fact that 2008, as of now, is the most wide-open race we've seen in 80 years. CNN figures that at the end of the day these guys have a snowball's chance, so why waste time on them? Meanwhile, they forget that these giys are also in the race as much as Clinton and Edwards and deserve the same amount of attention. How can we make an informed choice otherwise?

Zahn's Catholic crack was unfortunate. Trying to be funny, I suppose.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Oh, I mostly object to the fact that the three front runners, who are

only front runners in opinion polls, were given fifteen minutes each, in a setting with a live audience and Jim Wallis of Sojourners, other clergy, (including a Catholic priest!), while the other four were given only six minutes each without a live audience or any clergy posing questions to them.

The media are pushing the people they've been told to push, in both parties, and ignoring the rest. That's a given. It's quite a joke that we're supposed to be spreading democracy when our own system is so corrupt.

I'm going to complain primarily about the unequal allotment of time to the candidates but I'm going to mention how Zahn kept reinforcing that Biden, Dodd, Kucinich, and Richardson are Catholic. This country has only elected one Catholic president and I'm not sure there's any less anti-Catholicism today. I'm not talking about DU, either, but just what I've witnessed living in a majority Protestant state where some actually believe the Jack Chick tracts.

But I think there was religious bias. Do you think any news anchor would have said "Welcome to the Jewish Hour" when interviewing Barbara Boxer, Charles Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Henry Waxman, and Barney Frank?

(I had to find a site that lists religious affiliations of members of Congress to check who's Jewish; I didn't know any of those five were Jewish.)

No one said "Welcome to the Protestant Hour" before the Clinton/Edwards/Obama show or made a point of saying "All three are Protestants," as Zahn said "All four are Roman Catholics" and then identified each one as Catholic again while interviewing him.

I don't think it would have occurred to anyone to say "Welcome to the Protestant Hour." Protestant is the default in America. That's OK if other faiths are respected equally but if you're Catholic, unless you live in a Catholic enclave, you know that's not the case.

Not to mention that all four Catholics were asked if they take Communion when they vote in defiance of the Church's position on abortion.

John Edwards is a Southern Baptist. The Southern Baptist Conference takes a position against abortion, too. Edwards wasn't asked if he takes communion in defiance of the SBC position on abortion, was he? As I recall, only Clinton was asked about abortion during face time for the Big Three.