CNN's Sesno suggests McCain owns copyright on "straight talk" label

Summary: Referring to the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, CNN's Frank Sesno said: "[M]oney is pouring in, but with apologies to [Sen.] John McCain, you might hear some straight talk, too." In assigning McCain ownership of the "straight talk" label, Sesno joined a long line of media, including CNN hosts and correspondents, who have adopted McCain's self-laudatory label of "straight-talker" despite his stark inconsistency on numerous issues.

On the February 8 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, special correspondent Frank Sesno said of Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) presidential campaign: "[M]oney is pouring in, but with apologies to [Sen.] John McCain [R-AZ], you might hear some straight talk, too. Excitement doesn't necessarily equal victory." In assigning McCain ownership of the "straight talk" label, Sesno joined a long line of media, including CNN hosts and correspondents, who have adopted McCain's self-laudatory label of "straight-talker" despite his stark inconsistency on numerous issues, including the Iraq war, immigration, and tax cuts. McCain has also repeatedly claimed that he called for former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation. In fact, while McCain expressed "no confidence" in Rumsfeld in 2004, the Associated Press reported at the time that McCain "said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld's resignation." Further, when Fox News host Shepherd Smith specifically asked McCain, "Does Donald Rumsfeld need to step down?" on November 8, 2006 -- hours before Bush announced Rumsfeld's resignation -- McCain responded that it was "a decision to be made by the president."

Following are examples of CNN personalities referring to McCain's purported "straight talk":

• On the January 27 edition of CNN's Late Edition, after host Wolf Blitzer aired a C-SPAN clip of McCain's mother, Roberta McCain, saying she did not think her son "has any" support among the Republican base, senior political analyst Gloria Borger said: "[N]ow we know where McCain gets all the straight talk from. We think it's his mother." Both Borger and Blitzer went on to refer to McCain as a "maverick." Borger commented that McCain's mother is "telling the truth. The base of the Republican Party has never been enamored of John McCain."

• On the August 29, 2007, edition of The Situation Room, while discussing an earlier interview by CNN senior national correspondent John King with McCain, Blitzer said to King: "There was some straight talk from the Straight Talk Express," the latter being the name of McCain's campaign bus. Blitzer added that, although McCain "dodged some of your questions ... he also was pretty candid when it came to a very sensitive subject -- the future of Senator Larry Craig [R-ID]." But neither Blitzer nor King explained what made calling for Craig's resignation "straight talk" given that, in the days after the first reports of Craig's guilty plea on misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges, Republicans such as Sen. Norm Coleman (MN) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (MI) had also called on Craig to resign.

• On the May 21, 2007, edition of The Situation Room, correspondent Tom Foreman reported that McCain "became famous for his straight talk during his first run for the White House." But in touting McCain's purported "straight talk" during his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign, Foreman ignored McCain's admission that, regarding the issue of the Confederate flag, he had "broke[n] [his] promise to always tell the truth" in order to "win the South Carolina primary."

• On the January 15, 2007, edition of The Situation Room, Blitzer teased a report on Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson's statement that he "would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances" by claiming that "Senator John McCain likes straight talk."

Media Matters for America also documented numerous instances in which CNN personalities have referred to McCain as a "maverick."

From the February 8 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

SESNO: What if you could be a fly on the wall at Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama campaign headquarters? What if you could hear what they're really saying about the campaign, their strategy, and their prospects? We know what they're saying in public: Clinton says it's going fine.

CLINTON: We are very pleased about where the campaign is and how --

SESNO: But if you were a fly on the wall, you'd hear another side. At Hillary's shop, you might see them dump the decaf. They've got to work around the clock now. This campaign has gone from inevitable to inexorable. You might see the bills piling up for travel and polling and media and salaries.

What if you could have been there when Hillary tossed in $5 million of her own, and some of the staff volunteered to go a month without pay? That must have been fun. They're already back on the payroll. Then there's Barack. Publicly, it's all about momentum.

OBAMA: Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

SESNO: And money is pouring in, but with apologies to John McCain, you might hear some straight talk, too. Excitement doesn't necessarily equal victory. New Hampshire showed that a month ago, and Super Tuesday voters who made up their minds at the very last minute tended toward Hillary. And the race card is still a wild card.

What if you were a fly on the wall inside these campaigns? You'd see laser-like focus now on the maps and the delegates. Where to deploy the candidates and the media buys? You'd see calculations about some basic divisions in the Democratic Party: age, race, and gender. And you'd see plenty of mood swings.

—B.J.L.