CNN Can't Stop Talking About Obama Even in Lincoln's Birthday Stories

February 12th, 2009 11:00 AM

Images below the fold

Like Seinfeld's "soup Nazi," CNN is yelling "No birthday for YOU" to Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday -- at least not one for Lincoln alone. Interestingly, the Cable TV Newser can't seem to just give Lincoln his day without shoehorning Barack Obama into many of its stories about Lincoln. It's Lincoln/Obama day as far as CNN is concerned.

Certainly it is natural to see Obama as the culmination of Abraham Lincoln's legacy, but CNN takes this coupling a tad too far. Out of the 12 stories about Lincoln on their Lincoln page, fully one third include Obama. Additionally, the header graphic on the Lincoln page celebrates the day as being "From Lincoln to Obama." One of the stories is about an artist that morphed photographs of Lincoln's head with Obama's face as if this was somehow pertinent to Lincoln's birthday... or even pertinent to art, for that matter.

It nearly looks as if the day is as much about Barack Obama as it is Abraham Lincoln to CNN.

Here is the top of the CNN Lincoln celebration page:

And here is a screenshot of the 12 top stories on Linclon, of which 4 (highlighted) are as much about Obama as they are Lincoln. As posted at 10:30 EST, February 12:

Well, what do you folks think? Is this day becoming more about paying attention to Obama than Lincoln's birthday deserves?

(H/T NewsBuster reader Hal)