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Ed Henry should quit while CNN is behind

March 17, 2010 11:29 am ET by Eric Boehlert

This is what happens when  you make poor hiring choices -- you force your employers to defend the mistakes, which only makes more people look bad. Yesterday, it was CNN's Ed Henry's turn. 

Responding to the criticism that greeted the news that CNN had hired right-wing hate blogger Erick Erickson to be a regular contributor, a tweet on Henry's account read:

For those Tweeting CNN shouldn't have hired @ewerickson as a contributor, seriously do you think a network should NOT have diverse voices

Not to put to put too fine a point on it, but this is just painfully dumb. Henry actually claimed that liberals were upset because they don't want CNN to hire any conservatives; that CNN hired somebody who they will disagree with politically? This is pointless because basically nobody on the Left was making that argument. In fact, they were explicitly saying it was fine for CNN to hire conservatives.

But at least we know Ed Henry can build straw men. 

But then it got worse with this tweet:

@buffalo_girl who is the equivalent to Eric Erickson on the left appearing on CNN? Have you seen Begala, Carville ...

Yep, Henry used the "e" word" (equivalent) when discussing Erickson alongside Paul Begala and James Carville. Apparently In Henry's eyes, Erickson and Begala/Carville are the same. And this is where CNN, by making a foolish hiring decision, begins to lose even more credibility; by having staffers  like Henry run around and suggest a right-wing hate blogger is just like top-notch Democratic thinkers.

Keep in mind that Begala/Carville, by getting Bill Clinton elected, helped resurrect the Democratic Party, and then counseled a sitting president. Erickson, by comparison, is a city councilman who writes hate dispatches on his blog, like when he denounced a retiring Supreme Court Justice as a "goat fucking child molester."

But in the eyes of Henry, or at least according to his corporate spin, Begala and Carville are just like Erickson. They're equals.

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    • Author by The_Cat (March 17, 2010 11:41 am ET)
      5  
      I can dig it, Mr. Boehlert, but, as they say, don't try to wash a pig. You will only waste your soap, and it annoys the pig.

      There seem now to be three default Faux Con errors:
      1) The strawman
      2) Ad hominem attacks
      3) False equivalence

      It's a good thing for the Faux Cons that these logical fallacies aren't felonies, what with the 'three strikes' law and everything. It's also a bit sad that there is any significant portion of the American people who can still be fooled by such transparent errors of logic. I suppose that's why the Republicans want to cut education funding. They're hoping to fool all of the people all of the time.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by progressivevoicedaily (March 17, 2010 12:31 pm ET)
        1  
        This is why nobody watches CNN!!! You have to go no farther than Wolf Blitzer. Soap opera of politics...tune in to CNN
        Report Abuse
        • Author by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© (March 17, 2010 1:10 pm ET)
             
          Wolf reached the pinnacle of his capabilities back when he was watching SCUDs fly by.

          And CNN has has been circling the drain since Ted Turner sold it.
          ~
          Report Abuse
    • Author by marco21 (March 17, 2010 11:44 am ET)
      4  
      How embarrassing. CNN should just hire Kate Gosseling to anchor and call it a day insofar as journalism goes.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© (March 17, 2010 11:46 am ET)
      3  
      Keep in mind that Begala/Carville, by getting Bill Clinton elected, helped resurrect the Democratic Party, and then counseled a sitting president.

      I would note that Bill Clinton and those two gentlemen are DLC Democrats...which is not "The Left" at all. (In spite of all the screeching and howling from the always_working_the_Overton_window right.)

      If you were to take an equivalent of Erickson from the other side of the spectrum, it would be someone like Digby. (And I mean equivalent just in terms of distance from the center...Digby is a far better writer and thinker than Erickson.)

      Who at CNN is like Digby? I can't think of anyone.
      ~
      Report Abuse
      • Author by avedon (March 19, 2010 6:53 am ET)
           
        "If you were to take an equivalent of Erickson from the other side of the spectrum, it would be someone like Digby."

        No, not like Digby. Digby's content doen't come close to being as whacked out Erickson's.

        For the equivalent of Erickson's type of misogyny and support of sociopathic economic policies, you'd need one of those "all men re rapist" types who also spends a lot of time talking about all the capitalist pigs who should be lined up against a wall and shot come der revolution.

        I'm sure there must be someone like that who has a blog.

        Alternatively, you can establish that, far from being a "citizen journalist" of the sort people like Digby, Atrios, and myself have always been, Erickson is, like Carville and Begala, part of the paid party campaign apparatus - only crazier - and that the paid party hacks are the only people who get to have opinions on CNN, regardless of actual content.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by gg (March 17, 2010 12:20 pm ET)
      1  
      CNN is just trying to be a Fox want-a-be, and I have to admit they are beginning to get good at it. Since "fair and balanced" is taken, they can start saying they are "unfair and completely unbalanced" in every sense of the word.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by secularhuman (March 17, 2010 2:13 pm ET)
         
      Not to mention that if you look for equivalents to Begala and Carville as per their standing on the CNN political ``team'' the equivalents are ALREADY THERE, in the form of the many, many Republican mouthpieces and insiders CNN rolls out every day. If Erickson were hired along with a gutter-speaking intellectually limited lefty, then there'd be some equivalence. But that's a concept too complex for the faux journalist Ed Henry to grasp.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by renato (March 17, 2010 2:13 pm ET)
      1  
      So CNN wants to ensure that sociopath voices are represented.

      Bra. Vo. *clap clap*
      Report Abuse
    • Author by paul8616 (March 17, 2010 2:58 pm ET)
      1  
      CNN has figured out what FOX figured out already: Conservatives are stupid enough to watch TV in order to feel informed. Thus, committing the false equivalence plays to their audience, and helps them sell ads.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by highlyunlikely (March 17, 2010 6:47 pm ET)
      1 1
      oh does trouble brew

      when I claim to know why you do what you do
      Report Abuse
    • Author by shadetail.us1808 (March 17, 2010 9:49 pm ET)
      1  
      CNN is the same network that had Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs. This is pretty much par the course for them. And they announced this by calling the Son of Erick an influential conservative who Washington pays attention to.

      Puh-LEAZE.

      Has Erickson ever done anything successful outside of Redstate? You know, something that *didn't* end up failing and just fizzling out? I can't think of anything.

      Just one example: do any of you even remember Operation Leper? No, of course you don't. That was one of Erickson's projects, after all.
      Report Abuse

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