March, 17 2010, 08:43am EDT
CNN Scrapes Bottom of Right-Wing Barrel With Erickson Hire
WASHINGTON
Since Glenn Beck left Headline News
for Fox, CNN executives
apparently feel that their staff is short on unbalanced hatemongers.
To make up the gap, they've just hired Erick Erickson as a political
commentator.
"Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com
editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political
contributor," CNN announced in a March 16 press release. "Erickson will appear
weeknights on John King, USA, which launches Monday, March 22,
as well as provide perspective and commentary to other programs across
the network."
Who is Erickson? Well, he's a racist who declared
that Barack Obama won the Nobel Prize because of "affirmative action
quotas" (Think Progress, 10/9/09). He's a misogynist who suggested that
"feminazis were enraged" by an anti-abortion Super Bowl ad because
"that's what being too ugly to get a date does to your brain." He urged
that "ugly feminists return to their kitchens" (Media Matters,
2/8/10). He's a homophobe who asserted that "the
full gay rights agenda" means that "men and boys can have sexual
relationships free of prudish moral people frowning" (Media
Matters, 10/9/09).
He's an all-around nasty human being who, upon
Justice David Souter's retirement, called him "the only goat-fucking
child molester to ever serve on the Supreme Court" (Crooks and
Liars, 5/1/09). He declared that White House spokesperson
Linda Douglass "really is the Joseph Goebbels of the White House
healthcare shop" (TPM, 10/12/09). Meanwhile, he suggested that Obama might
be worse than Hitler, writing, "Does it say more about the IOC or
Obama that the IOC gave Hitler the Olympics, but not Obama?"
As if that weren't enough, he's also an advocate of
political violence (Yglesias, 4/1/09):
At what point do the
people tell the politicians to go to Hell? At what point do they get
off the couch, march down to their state legislator's house, pull him
outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?
people tell the politicians to go to Hell? At what point do they get
off the couch, march down to their state legislator's house, pull him
outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?
At some point soon, it will happen. It'll be over an
innocuous issue. But the rage is building. It's not a partisan
issue.... Were I in Washington state, I'd be cleaning my gun right
about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the
government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.
(Note that the tyranny to which he was calling for
armed resistance involved regulation of dishwashing soap.)
If Erickson is not beyond the pale, then CNN
has no pale.
ACTION: Please write to CNN
and ask them to explain how hiring a commentator of Erick Erickson's
ilk can possibly conform to the network's standards and practices.
CONTACT:
CNN Political Director Sam Feist
Email: sam.feist@turner.com
Telephone: 202-515-2852
Web form: https://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form6a.html?2
Please post copies of your letters in the comments
section on the FAIR Blog: https://www.fair.org/blog/2010/03/16/action-alert-cnn-hires-erick-erickson/
FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.
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