The Missing 18 Seconds!

For those of you who have never heard of the group Media Matters for America, let me give you a brief introduction. The group is a “media watchdog” that looks for, of all things, instances of conservative bias in media. Yeah, I know. Stop laughing. They’re serious.

Anyhow, this group concentrates mostly on columnists and attacks opinions as opposed to actual factual statements, like most media bias hunters do, mostly, I assume, because George Soros wants to see some results for his money. Once in a while they find a real news story to jump on and they do. With both feet.

Today, CNN is a target of their ire. Here’s their “bias” complaint:

Summary: During a discussion on civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery’s address at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, CNN aired a video clip of part of Lowery’s remarks, in which he mentioned the failure to find WMDs, cropping out 18 seconds of applause and the standing ovation he received without indicating that the clip had been doctored.

Yep. That’s it. CNN edited out 18 seconds of applause and that, folks, is what passes for an example of conservative media bias. Never you mind that the show is on a time schedule. Never you mind that watching 5 seconds of rousing applause instead of 23 conveys the message that the comments were well-received. Never you mind that 23 seconds is a lifetime in network television and that the applause is the equivalent of dead air where neither the host or the guest can add anything at all to the conversation.

No, to post heel-turn David Brock’s crew, this is worthy of its very own article and a dourly shaken finger.

I doubt it occurred to Media Matters to mention that CNN didn’t discuss the appropriateness of a minister making a partisan political speech in a church, thus violating the wall of separation between church and state held to be inviolable by the left.

All they were concerned with is that viewers might not have understood that Lowery actually got a standing ovation. Because the standing ovation is news, right? Like leftist religious figures giving leftist speeches in front of a largely leftist crowds don’t routinely get standing ovations for digs at President Bush?

CNN got it exactly right. The story wasn’t whether there was a standing ovation or not. The story was whether or not it was decent civil behavior to make snarky political comments during a funeral service for a good and noble woman.

Then again, I suppose if you’re George Soros’ paid lapdogs, you’ll find outrage in the most ridiculous things.

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Category: Moonbat Nonsense, Oh, THAT liberal media.