Terwijl 96% van de Amerikanen nauwelijks interesse heeft in de immigratie"problematiek", maakte CNN er een sleutelonderwerp van in het CNN/YouTube-debat.
Door werkelijk belangrijke zaken, zoals de Irak-oorlog, naar de achtergrond te verdrijven, speelde de zender een dubieuze, corrupte rol in het politieke debat, in de aanloop naar de Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen. Dit stelt politiek commentator Tim Rutten, in de LA Times.
Corruption is a strong word. But consider these facts: The gimmick behind Wednesday's debate was that the questions would be selected from those that ordinary Americans submitted to the video sharing Internet website YouTube, which is owned by Google. According to CNN, its staff culled through 5,000 submissions to select the handful that were put to the candidates. That process essentially puts the lie to the vox populi aura the association with YouTube was meant to create. When producers exercise that level of selectivity, the questions -- whoever initially formulated and recorded them -- actually are theirs.
That's where things begin to get troubling, because CNN chose to devote the first 35 minutes of this critical debate to a single issue -- immigration. Now, if that leaves you scratching your head, it's probably because you're included in the 96% of Americans who do not think immigration is the most important issue confronting this country. We've got a pretty good fix concerning what's on the American mind right now, because the nonpartisan and highly reliable Pew Center has been regularly polling people since January on the issues that matter most to them. In fact, the center's most recent survey was conducted in the days leading up to Wednesday's debate.
Lees verder op LATimes
