CNN's pro-gun control bias is so bad, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.) thanked them for their "support" of his gun bill on Thursday's Starting Point. This came after CNN's press release begged Congress to expand background checks.
"We appreciate your support, too. This is very, very important," Manchin told CNN after co-host John Berman noted the Senator's "compromise deal" he had been working on.
Then on Wednesday and Thursday, CNN hammered the gun issue hourly. Correspondent Dana Bash spent two days with gun control advocate Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly and aired puff pieces about the couple's efforts to get stricter gun laws passed, like expanding background checks.
On Wednesday's The Situation Room, correspondent Jim Acosta asked Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) the same question that was on CNN's press release. "When 90 percent of the American people say we want universal background checks, how can you be against that?" he pressed. He followed up, "how could you be undecided about it?" when Landrieu denied she was against it.
Acosta kept hounding Landrieu. "When you see so much support out there across the country for this one provision, doesn't that give you pause?" he asked again.
Anchor Carol Costello, who was incredulous over the threat of a GOP filibuster on gun control legislation on Tuesday, still regarded it as a "danger" on Wednesday morning: "I mean, has the threat of a filibuster faded completely? Or are we still in danger, or could debate start as soon as tomorrow?"
Anchor Brooke Baldwin badgered a gun rights advocate to find "compromise" with the 90 percent of Americans who want stronger background checks.
"[W]hen you look at the CNN/ORC poll, basically nine out of 10 Americans support some sort of, you know, some sort of background checks here for gun purchases. If you, Raul, just if you're sitting around a dinner table with any of those nine out of 10 Americans who support this, who are not on your side, where would you compromise? Give me one thing," Baldwin asked Raul Mas.
Host Piers Morgan laughably expressed optimism that the gun issue is still "leading the news": "Where is this debate going to go? Not just tomorrow, but my sense is, the optimism I have – and it's not a lot, but it's some – is that we're still talking about this, it's still leading the news three months after Newtown."
Gun control might be "leading the news" on CNN only because of Morgan's decision to make it top news. His own flagging ratings certainly aren't evidence of the public lapping up his gun stories.
