CNN Puffs Up Tiny Liberal Protest 'Hounding' Romney's Visit to RNC Headquarters
A liberal protest that CNN.com said contained "about 10 people" still merited inclusion in CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's report on Wednesday's The Situation Room. Of course, Acosta made no mention of the smallness or brevity of the protest -- the chant of "No Swiss Mitt" lasted under five minutes.
Acosta did tout that Democrats were "hounding" Romney to keep him "back on his heels." As an example of their strategy, he mentioned the protesters with a clip of them chanting "No Swiss Mitt." [Video below the break. Audio here.]
"But Democrats have their own playbook to keep Romney back on his heels," Acosta reported, "hounding his visit to the Republican National Committee in Washington with chants of 'No Swiss Mitt,' in step with a new Obama re-election video."
According to CNN.com, the protesters were from the liberal group Americans United for Change. They stood outside of the Republican National Committee headquarters chanting "No Swiss Mitt" while Romney was inside visiting, to protest his outsourcing jobs and using a Swiss bank account.
As if the tiny protest wasn't weak enough, according to CNN.com the group "arrived after Romney was already inside, so he would only have seen them if he was looking out a back window of the Republican headquarters."
Did CNN give proportionate attention to a January pro-life march in D.C. attended by not 10, but tens of thousands of people? Not quite. That event merited two brief mentions, in contrast with CNN hyping a D.C. Earth Day rally attended by hundreds.
A partial transcript of the segment, which aired on May 2 on The Situation Room at 4:17 p.m. EDT, is as follows:
JIM ACOSTA: I was out with Mitt Romney earlier today in Chantilly, Virginia, in Northern Virginia. It was amazing to watch, because it was as if the news surrounding the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden had not even happened. Now that the President has played his trump card, and that is the bin Laden death, Mitt Romney wants to play his, that is the economy. While Newt Gingrich – he's just folding his cards.
(...)
ACOSTA: But Democrats have their own playbook to keep Romney back on his heels. Hounding his visit to the Republican National Committee in Washington with chants of "No Swiss Mitt," in step with a new Obama re-election video.
(Music Playing)
NEWT GINGRICH, former Speaker of the House: I don't know of any American president who's had a Swiss bank account. I'll be glad for you to explain that sort of thing.
ACOSTA: The star of the video? Who else?
NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS News White House correspondent: Are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?
GINGRICH: Yes.
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Comments
Is it a wonder
Submitted by bmacdmac on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 5:55pm.
No one watches CNN. Trying to make something out of 10 people is hardly news.
OWS Coverage
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 6:41pm.
The local news here in Little Rock, Arkansas still covers the Occupy Little Rock "movement". I've seen, and talked, to the OLR people who walk around downtown Little Rock with a bullhorn and some banners. They are easy to talk to, because at the most, there are only five or six of them. Yet they continue to get covered by the local television stations.
I mentioned this to my wife the other day, and she wondered out loud why her annual tennis tournament, (which has hundreds of participants and fans of tennis and up-and-coming tennis players from around the world), can never get a lick of television coverage, even though they ask every local news outlet to please give them a mention. The only thing I could think of was that the local affiliates have been given instruction from on high to cover OWS and their so called affiliates around the country.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
CNN RATINGS
Submitted by squirefld on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 6:48pm.
Did CNN get their entire viewership to show up so they had something to put on the air. It's sad when when an informercial on the GT Express has better ratings then then CNN
What he also didn't mention
Submitted by texastommy on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 7:50am.
What he also didn't mention was that the 10 protestors were all reporters and camera crews from the other national news outlets.