“I think there's a lot of time on radio and television and on the Web that actually is conservative points of view. There's not a lot of time for the left,” long-time CNN executive David Bohrman, the new President of Current TV, the channel co-founded by Al Gore which is Keith Olbermann’s new home, laughably claimed late Sunday morning in a live interview on CNN’s Reliable Sources.
Bohrman, who worked at ABC News and NBC News before joining CNN in the mid-1990s, admitted he “outed” himself as a liberal by jumping to Current TV, proclaimed “I also think that the left needs to recapture patriotism and not let the right own the flag and own patriotism” and even saw MSNBC’s prime time as too balanced.
I think most of the day, 20 hours a day, it's the NBC News network. And the one trap even at night that I think we see at MSNBC, and I think we see here even at CNN, as well, there's almost this false equivalency where everything is a minute on this opinion and then a minute a counter-opinion.
On what planet is Bohrman living? There’s hardly a minute of conservative counterpoint for every minute of liberal ranting on Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, The Rachel Maddow Show or The Ed Show.
Bohrman, who was hired by Current TV to transform it into a full-fledged news channel, maintained his liberal views never impacted CNN’s output since “I completely set aside my views to do my job,” asserting “in the hundreds if not thousands of hours of programming that I produced here at CNN and at NBC and at ABC, with Wolf Blitzer and John King and all of the others, I don't think any of us ever knew our politics. Wolf and I did everything in the '08 election. I have no idea how Wolf votes. I don't think he had any idea of my politics.”
Yeah, they had no idea of the political views held by each other – because they assumed it matched their own -- but that doesn’t mean their viewers were as unaware.
Also, humorously, Bohrman insisted his new network won’t “hide” behind the “progressive” label, but that is precisely the terminology used by Al Gore.
On CNN, Bohrman insisted “we're going to try not to hide behind the word ‘progressive,’ that I think so many liberals do, and then the people on the right, the conservative world, scoff at.” Gore, however, in Current TV’s August 8 press release, did just that kind of hiding when he promised Current would grow into “a truly independent, conflict-free, progressive voice in the news and political commentary arena.”
NewsBusters from Monday: “Gore and Olbermann Tap CNN, NBC and ABC Veteran Bohrman to Run Current TV.”
Kurtz introduced his former colleague by touting the embarrassing hologram, an idea quickly abandoned:
David Bohrman has been a fixture at CNN for more than a decade as Washington Bureau Chief and Senior Vice President. He's the guy who helped develop the Magic Wall and other technological gizmos, and most famously during the 2008 campaign, the hologram.
From the August 14 Reliable Sources:
KURTZ: With Olbermann not only as the host of Countdown, but the chief news officer of Current, is this going to be an all- liberal network?
BOHRMAN: I think it will provide a fair amount of time for liberal viewpoints to be made. It's not going to be exclusively liberal viewpoints, and we're going to try not to hide behind the word “progressive,” that I think so many liberals do, and then the people on the right, the conservative world, scoff at. I think there's a lot of time on radio and television and on the Web that actually is conservative points of view. There's not a lot of time for the left. And I think-
KURTZ: So, this is interesting. You see this as a balance to conservatives, particularly on talk radio, whereas conservatives often talk about the media as being so much tilted to the left, that they need an outlet like Fox News.
BOHRMAN: Well, in an odd way, I think what Roger Ailes started to do 15 years ago when he built Fox News, he wanted to barge into a media environment he saw as liberal. And remember, he talked about “we report, you decide.” Well, I think they've -- Fox is now the mainstream. Fox tells a lot of people what to think. And I think that we want on one level to be a counterpart to that -- a counterpoint to that – and be able to provide time for intelligent, long sometimes discussion of really important issues. The debt, for instance, in the last couple of weeks, it was dysfunctional in Washington and it was dysfunctional on cable news.
BOHRMAN: Well, you know, it's -- I do feel like I crossed a line and have been somewhat -- and outed myself. All right? Overtly, I need to say that. I will tell you that-
KURTZ: But just to be clear, you outed yourself as somebody whose views lean to the left?
BOHRMAN: Yes, yes. And that's what this network is going to be. But I will tell you, in the hundreds if not thousands of hours of programming that I produced here at CNN and at NBC and at ABC, with Wolf Blitzer and John King and all of the others, I don't think any of us ever knew our politics. Wolf and I did everything in the '08 election. I have no idea how Wolf votes. I don't think he had any idea of my politics. I produced at NBC News the funeral for Richard Nixon. I produced here at CNN the funeral for Ronald Reagan. They were the most moving, respectful programs that you could find anywhere.
KURTZ: So you're saying you set aside your views to do your job.
BOHRMAN: I completely set aside my views to do my job, and I think I did that really successfully. I also think that the left needs to recapture patriotism and not let the right own the flag and own patriotism. You know, I still, you still get a lump in your throat when you walk in the White House or in the Oval Office and are with the President of the United States, regardless whoever that person is.
KURTZ: We're running short on time. Isn't there already a liberal commentary network, at least at night, MSNBC, where Olbermann worked? And do you see Current as taking viewers from MSNBC and perhaps from CNN, as well?
BOHRMAN: Well, I see us taking viewers from them both. I think MSNBC trots it out a little bit at night. I think most of the day, 20 hours a day, it's the NBC News network. And the one trap even at night that I think we see at MSNBC, and I think we see here even at CNN, as well, there's almost this false equivalency where everything is a minute on this opinion and then a minute a counter-opinion. And by default, it's a lot like an old program we had here, Crossfire. There's too much yelling and shouting for the appearance of balance.
KURTZ: But do you think-
BOHRMAN: So I hope that we can have 10-or-15-minute discussions, and maybe there's a conservative thinker, but we probe and we have a long conversation.
KURTZ: As opposed to the Crossfire style.
BOHRMAN: Yes.
KURTZ: Well, we'll be watching. David Bohrman, thanks very much for coming back to CNN.
