CNN hires RedState's Erick Erickson, officially descends to the ninth circle of hell
[Erick Erickson of RedState: Image courtesy of Joeff Davis at Creative Loafing.]
As if there isn't enough insanity on the airwaves, enter CNN to the fray. They're rolling out a new 7PM ET show featuring John King (John King USA), and bringing on "balance" in the form of Red State's Erick Erickson.
From the Political Ticker:
Under Erickson's leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. Prior to leading RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years and managed a number of political campaigns, and he currently serves as a member of the Macon, Georgia, city council.
Wow. Right of center? Only if you're reaching around from the back with your left hand. Calling Red State right of center is a little like calling the Tea Partiers Reagan Republicans. Oh, wait.
"Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. "With Erick's exceptional knowledge of politics, as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN's ideologically diverse group of political contributors."
Conservative opinion leader? Agenda-setter? What demon, pray tell, has possessed Mr. Feist? Let's have a look at some of his opinions and agendas he's leading:
- About Ted Kennedy: "Today Ted Kennedy plots our deaths..." (h/t The Political Carnival)
- About Judge Souter: "[he] is a "goat f*&king child molester"
- He thinks Rush Limbaugh is Jesus.
- He openly called for armed revolt and beating politicians to a bloody pulp.
- He said the media "gang-raped" conservative politicians.
- Suggested that the Nobel Committee had an affirmative action quota
- Said that "leftists are Nazis" and the Nazis were liberal socialists.
- Said that the Alaska Democrats gave out Sarah Palin's SS# (a fact he pulled wholly from his posterior)
- Told his readers to send Olympia Snowe rock salt for her work on HCR. (Rock salt melts snow--get it?)
- Suggested that Obama was friends with a child molester
- Claimed the left has more dominance in the blogosphere because the right are too busy raising the children they didn't abort.
C'mon, CNN. Red State is the heavily-funded, longstanding arm of the Republican wingnut online noise machine. Erickson is a propaganda-spinner, a liar and a troll.
When I had little kids, I was really careful about what they watched on TV, because a steady diet of violence really does cause kids to be desensitized to it. CNN's hire of Erickson follows the same principle: By hiring someone who is bombastic, a liar, and a right-wing noise machine trumpet, they actually mainstream views that are rightly considered the province of the fringe and the whacko. It's serious, what they're doing. They actually want us to wish Lou Dobbs were back on the air in that hour.
When I worked for CNN Interactive, RedStaters Freepers were paid to troll our political discussions and disrupt them, especially during the Clinton impeachment proceedings. Back then, CNN locked them off the site. Now they pay them the same calibre voice to troll in real time, on the air.
Got a quote from Erickson that will shame CNN? Post it here.
You can register a complaint with CNN here.
Note: This post was edited to clarify the date difference between when CNN online communities existed and when RedState came into existence. Yes, at the time the trolls were Freepers. - K
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must go after more of those watchers of Fox to raise our ratings.
Clownact Noise Network...for propaganda that isn't even good fiction.
...who thoughtlessly watch television all day and believe what they are ordered to.
is now officially a fucking disgrace to journalism!
Not that they were all that great before hiring Erickson.
What, did Glenn Beck turn down cnn's offer?
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
No. They just hired Beck's replacement.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
when I moved to my new home last October.
More and more the evidence is clear I made the right choice.
Ditched cable earlier this year and it's amazing how much I don't miss it. I even used to watch CNN a lot because I'm sort of a news junkie. Maybe its because I got weaned off of CNN as they weaned themselves off of actual news reporting...
jumped the shark a long time ago. It's a joke of a "news" station. I never watch it. The only stations left to watch for the real news are MSNBC & Comedy Central.
I'm sure whoever the idiot in control at once admirable CNN thought, "Hey! Let's get us our own Glenn Beck!!!" Someone offensive and grating enough to appeal to the teabaggers.
they had Glenn and lost him to Fox. Gotta hang on to this one.
Erick Erickson goes to CNN to bury Journalism - not praise it.
Erickson is just there to piss on its grave.
..by putting a wingnut kook on with John King. Have they ever actually watched John King? He frames everything in terms of what's good for the Republican party. He may not be a registered Republican (most 'journalists' don't register in order to maintain a veneer of objectivity) but there's no escaping the fact that he thinks in lockstep with the G.O.P. IOW, he's a ratwanger from the whiskers on down.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
First Candy Crowley now this right wing turd. This only confirms the reason I no longer watch CNN.
i would stop watching cnn in protest, but i stopped watching cnn years ago
Yeah I feel so helpless to do anything, as this has no impact on my news sourcing.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
"Please do a story on how CNN decided not to hire Erick Erickson because he is part of the lunatic right. You could include him as part of your republican as usual programming if you thought your usual republican needed psychiatric help.
I guess i'll never have to watch another moment of CNN, as will millions of others, but I guess you can make up for it by challenging FOX for it's viewers.
Way to go."
It's long been a dishonest news source. I guess they're just solidifying their base.
Maybe they want to be invited to a tea party.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I hardly watch CNN anymore, anyway. They long since sold their soul over there, in quest for "balance." They've actually allowed right-wingers to say anything, without challenge.
It's propaganda.
...er, ah....LIBRUL MEDIA!
I mean really it's like every conservative's diet consists steak and potatoes
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
they're totally ok using it (even abusing it), but wellness? hell, no. that's socialism.
affecting their thought process, perhaps even their sanity.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
They look that way because they never go outside and see the real world.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Because they ahave lived lives of priveledge and been spoiled, over indulged and catered to their whole lives.
That's why you'll never hear of one of these supposed great patriots actually fighting for their country in the wars they support.
What a bunch of nauseating fat fucks.
Begala, Carville and Roland Martin.
if those are the three idgits that cnn considers progressives.... well, then they don't have any progressives at all.
especially Carville, he seems to have gone through some kind of transformation over the years.
you can't sleep next to that thing for year after year without having some of that stuff rub off on you
nnnnnnnnnnnasty
Sometimes when they're on CNN together Mary flashes James a tit when he says something she doesn't approve of.
*pukes a little*
LOL
*pukes a little*
etc.
Big deal. What's one more boob on CNN.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
This is what Carville wakes up to:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RRIGqzPDF00/SYT60NP...
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
the K-Street transformation
..on most issues, just like the American people, but are so intimidated and mealy mouthed in debate with the other side, they may as well be conservatives.
like their soulless mirror images on the right, most are neither liberal or conservative--they are opportunistic whores looking to spin something, anything, for cash.
for an eye opening experience, look into what carville (and shrum, devine, greenburg, and rosner [all dem strategists]) did in bolivia in the run-up to the election in the 2002 bolivian presidential campaign. these guys are not friends of democracy. they are ruling class leaches.
this and other liberal sites, smearing progressives and spreading the propoganda of the bought-and-paid-for Democratic leadership (DLC). You know it's a DLC operative when the following talking points/words are spouted: perfect is the enemy of the good (progressives), purists (progressives), Naderite (progressives), Hamsher (progressives), whining (progressives), crazy (progressives), far left (progressives), stomping their feet (progressives), Obama is a progressive, and we 'don't have the votes' to pass meaningful xxx[subsitute "healthcare reform", "financial reform", etc..] because those nasty progressives/Blue Dogs/Republicans are blocking us.
The DLC operatives focus their attack on the progressives, not the Republicans, who share their corporatist agenda.
Now and again Larry King will get Stephanie Miller, but you're right...98% of the time CNN is worthless.
Look up 'Operation Mockingbird' and you might see why the corporate news props up and covers the tea parties but doesn't give near as much coverage the anti-war rallies.
The corporate media has an agenda for war and not for the traditional values of the truth and educating the public. It's hard to remember that and not forget.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
John King is a very thinly veiled conservative. What the hell is CNN thinking?
I'll tune in once to see the sponsors so I can write them and tell them I'll be boycotting whatever they're selling for supporting this propoganda.
"
Why is it that no matter how radical people are, they and the media always act like they are within the sphere of mainstream centrists or just slightly to one side? So Red State is center right and Glenn Beck is on the right . . who is in the far right? Ted Bundy? Timmothy McVeigh?
where he represents small town america. Well, I grew up in a small town (teeennnnyyyy) and I'd venture to say there wasn't a soul in our community as sick as this fellow. Maybe it's the small southern towns he represents. That would figure.
Hey, give Macon a break. Brown & Williamson left town a few years ago and Erick is the only one left blowing smoke.
...are small for a reason. I grew up in one, too. But they don't reflect the majority American values, which are driven by the much larger urban and suburban voters.
Which is why states with only a million citizens get less Senators than California or New York. Oh, wait, they all get two?
[And a southern small town as well might skew the input he gets just a teensie bit.]
If they could count all the people in their families maybe they would find out that the town isn't so small after all. I mean all the chilluns and the cousins livin in the household have to be counted.
supported them in neighboring communities dried up long ago. I don't see them being small because they don't share mainstream american values.
...that they don't share American values, they just don't have the numbers to drive the bus.
I get irritated by the folks declaring that rural areas and small towns are the de facto determiners of "American values." They are not. They are just another part of the conversation, neither more or less important than the rest of us.
Reframe these lunatics as "centrist" to push perceptions toward acceptance of crazies as mainstream.
framing progressives as crazy and 'far left'. Go to DailyKos (the site of the Democratic Party) at any time and look at the diary headings to get a clue about how the Democratic Party is trying to frame 1/2 of their supposed base. Today's not too bad because it looks like the healthcare bill will pass and they got Kucinich onboard, but here's one - "How Perfectionism Defeats Accomplishment".
"Perfectionism" is always used to label progressives who want something more than a complete corporate giveaway.
...in many markets. My inlaws in NW Pennsylvania get Fox and CNN and CNBC on thier regular cable. No MSNBC or Comedy Central until you jump up to a digital package. Which elderly folks generally don't do.
I have noticed that many hotels carry this same set and not MSNBC or Comedy Central.
XM Radio dropped MSNBC years ago. I dropped them and told them I wouldn't return until MSNBC did.
Coincidence?
...why do you think that is? Is MSNBC dropping the ball or are they being shoved back into the digital package? Neither scenario would surprise me.
At any rate, the hiring of this Redstate boob doesn't shock me at all. It is tragic, but surprising? Hardly. CNN is a joke.
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
...yes, I see ClusterFox in airports, waiting rooms of various kinds and my friend who works at Shell says that it runs in the break rooms. Why any kind of teevee, especially a station with any political overtones, is on in a shared break room is beyond me, but that is another topic.
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
My hospital's cable package for patients and visitors doesn't have MSNBC or Comedy central either.
When XM dropped MSNBC, I assumed it was MSNBC's call. So I emailed MSNBC and was told it was purely XM's decision and that they would LOVE to get back on XM.
I do wonder what MSNBC's numbers would look like if they had the household penetration of Fox and CNN.
Look at the bright side of all this.
You have all these right wingers on these stations, and the right wing movement is splintering. There is a high probability that we will be treated to daily instances of these pundits eating one another.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
rightwing. So America has 2 rightwing political parties and a rightwing media. I'm investigating emigrating; the rightwing healthcare bill Obama is forcing on us is the last straw.
I think Americans have lost perspective on how rightwing we've become as a nation. On the European hour on NPR the other day, the moderator said Obama's healthcare bill was 'very rightwing' and that no European would find it acceptable.
i am eternally grateful to the bloggers on c&l,for keeping me informed and allowing me to retain my sanity by not watching the horseshit that is foisted off as "journalism". bow down to the innertubes.
hasn't been taken over by 'corporate interests' yet either. I think it's just a matter of time at the rate we're going.
The day is young.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
actively worked to protect a plagiarist that was on his staff, bother them in the slightest?
news organizations in the US and elsewhere. News is unprofitable and entrainment is so the drift towards "news" as entertainment continues. I'm quite certain CNN is well aware of the fact that Erickson is a fulminating nutbar. That's what they hired him for. It works for Fox doesn't it. I look forward to seeing Jerry Springer being hired as a moderator for the "debates" they'll be presenting.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
- An investigative report show with Jimmy 'Wiretap' O'Keefe?
- Andy Breitbart doing film reviews?
- The Gospel Hour with Fred Phelps and Bill Donohue?
- An unbiased look at immigration with Steve King and Tom Tancredo?
JUST TARGET THE ADVERTISERS !!!Hit them where it hurts, in the pocketbook.
An old retired fart.
I just put CNN on my "ignore" list.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Why the surprise, after all this is the network that Glenn Beck worked at for years, and the world knows how batshit crazy that fool is. Now they bring in another embicile to fill the crazy void. They are chasing conservative, tea party type viewers to try and steal some right wing nutcases from Fox. Get used to it folks, this has been the state of journalism since the Reagan revolution, and it only gets more worse as time goes by.
Red State was founded in 2004. Therefore, "RedStaters" could not have been "paid to troll" CNN's political discussion boards.
Nice try. I don't have the time to fact-check all these other quotes, but if one is proven to be a lie, I, like any logical person, question the veracity of them all.
RedState was not birthed onto the Internet overnight. It was, like most other rw sites, the brainchild and possibly the spawn of Free Republic.
I find CNN very offensive, but now with Eric from RedState, they've become as offensive as Fox News. I no longer watch either.
Bye bye!
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Give the whole network back to crazy Ted Turner. Remember how it used to be? Reporters? Going out and finding stories, not just reading tweets? I'll guarantee you that the present CNN spends less by percentage on newsgathering than Ted's shop used to. So they have no way of persuading you to watch that pablum unless they put in some "spice." But the spice is never from the Kucinich side, always from the right. That is just the self-interest of corporations speaking.
Time-Warner, or AOL-Time/Warner, is just a creation of corporate arbitrage. Hey, let's buy that company, let's merge, and we can make 1 decent property and one soul-sucking, declining entertainment business into big stock issues for the guys that merged them. The man who arranged the whole debacle? Sitting on his billions, not in jail.
I quit watching long ago. Not even a conscious thing, just nothing to tune in for. Looking at their ratings many other people felt the same way.
They seem to think that they can win some Flocks nationers. That means they don't understand them at all. These people are with flocks news as they are with their jingoism and religiosity. Flocks news is like their church of politics. They won't turn it off, even if nobody is actually watching it. It's where they all congregate to coordinate their self righteousness,fear and indignation.
CNN could get out of politics and talk about the actual issues and plans with scientists and doctors and local mayors and such. That would make them unique. Going after the Flocks viewer is an effort in futility. They ain't budgin' ..Haven't you noticed that yet? The rest of us have.
"When I worked for CNN Interactive, RedStaters were paid to troll our political discussions and disrupt them, especially during the Clinton impeachment proceedings."
Cool made-up story, Blogger. El-oh-el at a blog paying persons to take a time machine back to the late 90s to troll CNN message boards.
as I said to another commenter here, RedState evolved and was born out of other entities.
I quit watching all these news shows in 2003 have not cast my vision on them since. You can only take so much lying and ball licking before you just turn it off. They are worse then useless.
The only thing that surprises me is that any thinking person is surprised. For a long time, CNN has been going right. And they continue to do so. They have some blockheaded idea that the country is on the right side and they are playing to it.
I haven't watched CNN for at least 5 years (maybe longer -- who remembers?). The only TV news I watch is MSNBC. It isn't perfect, but it's sane.
It's not a matter of IF but WHEN Erickson, Limbaugh, Beck and their ilk head on down to Hell. Shame we won't be around to see their warm reception! Or is there a way? Conveniently, the folks at Dante's Dunk Tank have created the experience and allow you to be the one to send them there. Try this...
http://www.dantesdunktank.com/game/play/88cd8...
Pick "Right-Wing Media Star" and then any issue you have with them and enjoy the trip!
Seriously who the Hell watches this so called News Station?
Oh that's right the same people who have screwed up this Country.
The Low information Voters!
But then their call letters would spell CON.
Hmmm...all the better.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
We need a widespread, national movement to stop paying for cable television.
Let's get everyone we can to cancel their cable bills. It's really not a sacrifice. You'll watch your life get better, really. You'll spend more time outside, doing all sorts of things you've forgotten about from being glued to the tv all the time.
And if there's no one watching the propaganda, the country will improve too.
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
Damn , has CNN gone down the toilet or what ? Turner should never have sold CNN . I don't watch anymore , it's a waste of time .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
CNN = FoxNews2
NOBODY 2012
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