CNN: The Most Trusted Name In News??

Yesterday, CNN conducted an interview with Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin. In the interview, the reporter quoted an article form the national review. The full quote is as follows:

Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president,
it’s sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid,
unqualified, corrupt, backward, or — or, well, all of the above.

The quote appeared in a CNN interview as follows:
CNN: Yeah. Governor, you've been mocked in the press. The press has been pretty hard on you,
the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard
on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin
is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.

Palin: Who wrote that one?

CNN: That was in the National Review, I don't, have the author.

Palin: I'd like to talk to that person.

CNN: But they were talking about the fact that your experience as governor is not getting out.
Do you feel trapped in this campaign, that your message is not getting out, and if so who do you blame?

Yes, the reporter did eventually, in that last line, say what the point of Byron York's article was, but he took the quote of York 100% completely out of context.

Now, I don't know if the interviewer had a malicious intent, just misquoted the article by accident, if CNN misquoted the article by accident and gave it to him, or if CNN was out to get Governor Palin by maliciously misquoting an article and the reporter was left to take the fall.

I do know, however, that CNN has yet to acknowledge the incident, and is far from issuing an apology at the time of writing. Maybe having the interview be the focus of Bill O'Reilly's talking points memo last night will put some pressure on the news organization.

Accident or not, CNN needs to issue some sort of statement. Whether you support Governor Palin or not, this is a case of irresponsible journalism. It is entirely possible that the same thing has happened to Senator Barack Obama, but I am unaware of it. Many, including myself, have felt that the media have been unfair to Governor Palin and Senator John McCain in their coverage of the campaign, and have been too easy on Senator Obama.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a supporter of McCain, but my politics do not blind my journalism. If this incident had happened to Senator Obama, I would be just as outraged. It is the purpose of the media to be unbiased and to provide facts and insight, not to slant reporting to change the minds of their audience. The editorial component of the media, including those like O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Keith Olberman, JoeScarborough, and any opinion pieces in newspapers are allowed to project their opinions and to sway people; that is what editorialist do. But a straight news interview with a Vice Presidential candidate should not be putting forth an editorial agenda.

This election cycle has made me more disappointed in the state of journalism than I could have imagined, but it has also strengthened my resolve to become a major player in the industry, in order to bring it back to what its purpose is intended to be. Let's hope I am not too late.