CNN's announcement that it would host a Republican presidential debate next September with the Tea Party Express has caused leftist anchors and bloggers to regard CNN as unethical and leaning rightward, reports Kenneth Vogel at Politico:
MSNBC’s liberal anchor Keith Olbermann contended the move puts the lie to CNN’s effort to position itself as a more objective alternative to Fox and MSNBC and exposes an ongoing rightward drift.
“The alliance isn't the problem. It's the continuing pretense that CNN is neutral,” he wrote in an email to POLITICO. “They've been hemorrhaging viewers not because they're non-partisan but because the viewers recognize they are arrogantly and condescendingly pretending to be.”
Alex Pareene, a Salon political blogger, called the partnership “a slightly puzzling decision from a ‘basic standards of journalistic ethics’ standpoint, although from a ‘desperation for attention and the participation of a bunch of Fox employees’ standpoint it actually makes perfect sense.”
Following the link over to Salon's "War Room" blog, Pareene also joked:
I'm not sure what role the TPE will have in selecting or drafting the questions, but I'm guessing that there will be a lot of questionable assumptions, faulty premises and blatant misinformation baked into each one. "Governor Romney, will you cut the deficit by ending the death tax, repealing Obamacare, invading Iran, or some combination of the three?" "Senator Thune, do you think it's super-unconstitutional or just regular-unconstitutional for the nanny state government to allow public employee union thugs to force-feed my child arugula instead of wholesome American corn syrup?"
Politico reported that Erick Erickson endorsed the idea:
Red State blogger Erick Erickson, a CNN political analyst considered an influential tea party voice, said he was “surprised to hear the news,” and conceded that the Express is not “as grassroots as, for example, Tea Party Patriots.” Still, he asserted the partnership makes sense because the Express has demonstrated better organization and effectiveness than the Patriots and other tea party groups.
