Mar 24, 2008 at 9:00 PM by Political Chase
Puerto Rico’s change means Montana and South Dakota will hold the final Democratic primaries on June 3.
AP:
The Democratic Party on Monday approved Puerto Rico’s proposal to scrap its caucus and hold a presidential primary on June 1.
A primary will give more voters a chance to take part in the nominating process, said Puerto Rico Democratic Chairman Roberto Prats. He said caucuses were fine in previous years, when the party nominee was settled by the time Puerto Rico voted and the only task was to choose delegates to the national convention.
"Now it’s different," Prats told the Democratic National Committee’s rules panel in a conference call. "This is the first time in decades that Puerto Rico will be participating in an event of this magnitude."
Mar 24, 2008 at 4:26 PM by Political Chase
The Caucus has a piece on Sidney Blumentthal, a Clinton aide, pleading guilty to a charge of drunken driving. How, exactly, does this have any bearing on the substantive issues of the campaign, Hillary Clinton, or her qualifications to be president?
Would the Caucus report this if Clinton was not running for president?
Mar 24, 2008 at 3:30 PM by Political Chase
(updated below)
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| CNN’s Bill Schneider |
CNN’s Bill Schneider published a piece today on Barack Obama and the Jeremiah Wright story which is an outright act of malpractice and a reprehensible attempt to keep the controversial story in the headlines.
Schneider’s report today — "Poll of polls: Obama’s lead narrows after tough week"– is an abbreviated copy of an inaccurate, or misleading at best, report he published last week (based on extant polling results available).
In both reports Schneider claimed that Obama’s lead in the polls is narrowing and emphasized the negative impact the controversial story had on Obama’s campaign. Moreover, he failed to report, in either case, that while Obama had experienced a drop in polls much earlier last week, current polling indicated he had likely recovered from a progressive downward trend.
For today’s report, Schneider simply copied the first three paragraphs of last week’s report, changed the title, and provided a link to the older report for "the full story." And to emphasize the connection between Obama and his pastor, Schneider put the same picture he ran last week — portraying Obama and Wright together — in today’s piece. However Schneider obviously made a gallant effort to not appear too overstated since he put the picture on the opposite side of the page today.
After tapes of inflammatory statements made by Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor came out last weekend, it appears to have had some negative impact on the Illinois senator.
Nationally, Obama’s lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton narrowed in a poll of polls — which included CBS News, USA Today and Gallup.
The polls, taken between March 14-18, show Obama with 49 percent to Clinton’s 43 percent.
Prior to Schneider publishing his report last week, results from Gallup’s daily poll showed Obama gaining in the two most recent polls and in a statistical tie with Clinton in Friday’s results. And in fact, the same poll on Saturday — well before Schneider’s piece today — showed Obama taking the lead.
Furthermore, in today’s report, he failed to mention that recent polling showed more than 69 percent of voters said "Obama did a good job addressing the issues of race relations."
But why should Schneider and his colleagues be concerned with journalistic integrity, when CNN, and its reporters’, well-established bias, inaccuracies, and misreporting can serve their agenda, and the agendas of those they serve? I admit CNN is not on the same notorious level as FOX News, but they are not exactly outpacing all other media organizations for the most prestigious journalism awards either.
The perpetuation of the Wright story is just one example of the media’s negligent, biased, and generally inept reporting. Glenn Greenwald has superbly covered the broader, more systemic issues on numerous occasions (most recently — here, here, here, and here). While Schneider’s reporting can arguably be interpreted as biased and an intentional attempt to discredit Barack Obama, the far more important issue is not just Schneider or CNN, but the slothful, pathetic, and biased reporting done by the media in general.
Update: These are images from CNN’s site. The first image is from Schneider’s piece published today. The second image is from the piece he published Friday. Both have date and time stamps.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
Mar 24, 2008 at 10:00 AM by Political Chase
In an interview with CNN yesterday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on Congress and the Justice Department to investigate the breaching of Obama’s, Clinton’s, and McCain’s passport records.
"There are federal criminal statutes involved. I think that ought to be a very intense investigation. I think privacy is a very fundamental matter"…"I think it ought to be something for Attorney General Mukasey, and I think that it may well be something for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where I’m the ranking member."
