The Blatant Dishonesty of CNN

When it came to CNN's exclusion of Gov. Gary Johnson from their "debate" for all Republican candidates who aren't Gary Johnson, I took it as a stupid policy based on their own ignorance. Now, I have reason to think otherwise. Now I believe they are intentionally dishonest.

Johnson, who as far as this blogger is concerned, is the only libertarian in the race, was excluded because CNN says he doesn't poll high enough in opinion polls. Opinion polls at this point i the race are nothing more than name-recognition polls and I thought CNN ought to know this, or at least one of the kids interning there might be able to tell them.

But look at this poll that CNN has done.

Tell me how Gary Johnson can qualify for one of the CNN bogus debates if they intentionally exclude him from the poll. See, CNN goes around asking Republicans what that they think about Republican candidates. They rattle off a list of names of bigots, morons, warmongers, statists, immigrant-hating, earmark-loving, Republicans. And then the member of the public responds to the name. They include everyone and the kitchen sink, include Gingrich whose campaign has collapsed with the mass defection of his own staff. Well, almost everyone. The one candidate they will not mention is Gary Johnson.

Let us consider how the media looks at this race. They have all these Right-wing conservatives willing to impose some level of theocracy on America, Rick Santorum being the worst of the bad lot. They have the token black guy that got attention by saying silly things in a debate and thus got some name recognition. And they have their token "libertarian," Ron Paul, who they can easily make look absurd by showing the world his wacko views on the NAFTA Superhighway, the "Amero" conspiracy, the banking conspiracy, the CFR conspiracy, and whatever paranoid delusion the Birchers are dishing out this week. And they have Gary Johnson who is far closer to being an actual libertarian. Unlike Paul, Johnson does NOT support things like DOMA, doesn't want to ban to abortion, doesn't hate immigrants, said that Paul's Wall on the Border is a waste, etc. In other words, Gary Johnson is good where Ron Paul is pathetic and Johnson has a proven track record of attracting Democrats and Republicans both in elections.

He was a Republican elected in majority Democratic state and then he got re-elected a second time with an even higher majority. One poll showed that of all the Republicans running, who were polled to that day, he was the only one where with a positive rating in his own state. For all the others, people in their home states had higher negatives views about them, then positive. All, except Gary Johnson.

When CNN sets the rules for debate inclusion, and requires candidates to get a certain percentage in the polls, but then goes out of the way to exclude specific candidates from the very polls they take, that is not oversight. That is dishonesty.

The Baltimore Sun has taken on CNN and the other "sponsors" of this dishonest debate. They note that by the qualifications listed by CNN, Gary Johnson did qualify for inclusion in the debate. CNN immediately changed the rules to exclude him. They said "this last-minute alteration of the criteria is akin to that most-hated sports analogy: Changing the rules in the middle of the game." As the Sun write: "They shouldn't change the rules to justify the exclusion of a candidate whom they had already improperly decided to exclude." My view: FUCK CNN, they are scum.