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Call to CNN: Intentional (?) X over Cheney (operator fired!)

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

http://www.dailypundit.com/graphics/cnncall.wav

Complaint call to CNN; the caller was told that someone was using their "freedom of speech" to express their opinion about the vice president by putting an X over his face during a speech. I don't recall this happening when Gore was VP.
There's a difference between covering the news and commenting on it. CNN
crossed the line. Probably time to boycott them. Then again, lots of people
are (low ratings...)

We'll see what happens in a few years when President Hillary Clinton's VP, Barack Obama, is making a speech. Will Fox News, which leans to the right as far as _commentary_ goes,
put an X over HIS face?

UPDATE: The CNN switchboard operator you're hearing has been fired. (Note that his comment about "someone was expressing their opinion" does not necessarily mean that CNN was, or wasn't, doing it on purpose. However the switchboard
operator didn't help matters by injecting his own partisan views when responding to the caller.)
See http://www.dailypundit.com


""A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views -- behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. "--Laurie Goldberg, CNN
 
> http://www.dailypundit.com/graphics/cnncall.wav
>
> Complaint call to CNN; the caller was told that someone was
> using their "freedom of speech" to express their opinion
> about the vice president by putting an X over his face
> during a speech. I don't recall this happening when Gore was
> VP.
> There's a difference between covering the news and
> commenting on it. CNN
> crossed the line. Probably time to boycott them. Then again,
> lots of people
> are (low ratings...)
>
> We'll see what happens in a few years when President Hillary
> Clinton's VP, Barack Obama, is making a speech. Will Fox
> News, which leans to the right as far as _commentary_ goes,
> put an X over HIS face?
>
> UPDATE: The CNN switchboard operator you're hearing has been
> fired. (Note that his comment about "someone was expressing
> their opinion" does not necessarily mean that CNN was, or
> wasn't, doing it on purpose. However the switchboard
> operator didn't help matters by injecting his own partisan
> views when responding to the caller.)
> See http://www.dailypundit.com
>
>
> ""A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we
> were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a
> caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed
> his personal views -- behavior that was totally
> inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of
> CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our
> deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the
> courtesy entitled to her. "--Laurie Goldberg, CNN
>
Now they tell us.
 
> Complaint call to CNN; the caller was told that someone was
> using their "freedom of speech" to express their opinion
> about the vice president by putting an X over his face
> during a speech. I don't recall this happening when Gore was
> VP.

We dealt with this incident in the Off the Air forum because of the great chance the thread would go political. The whole matter was a technical fault. It came after Cheney made an inconsequential comment about being in the House while a member of the minority party. Had this been an intentional attack on Cheney, it would have lasted longer than 1/15th of a second and occured during a controversial remark.

The only reason it's a story is that some wingnut conspiracy blogs were convinced liberals in the CNN broadcast booth were out to get Cheney. Ridiculous.

I don't know anything about the switchboard story. Thus far, this has only been mentioned on right wing blog sites. I wouldn't be surprised if an operator flipped considering the number of nutters who call news organizations every day.
 
> http://www.dailypundit.com/graphics/cnncall.wav
>
> Complaint call to CNN; the caller was told that someone was
> using their "freedom of speech" to express their opinion
> about the vice president by putting an X over his face
> during a speech. I don't recall this happening when Gore was
> VP.
> There's a difference between covering the news and
> commenting on it. CNN
> crossed the line. Probably time to boycott them. Then again,
> lots of people
> are (low ratings...)
>
> We'll see what happens in a few years when President Hillary
> Clinton's VP, Barack Obama, is making a speech. Will Fox
> News, which leans to the right as far as _commentary_ goes,
> put an X over HIS face?
>
> UPDATE: The CNN switchboard operator you're hearing has been
> fired. (Note that his comment about "someone was expressing
> their opinion" does not necessarily mean that CNN was, or
> wasn't, doing it on purpose. However the switchboard
> operator didn't help matters by injecting his own partisan
> views when responding to the caller.)
> See http://www.dailypundit.com
>
>
> ""A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we
> were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a
> caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed
> his personal views -- behavior that was totally
> inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of
> CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our
> deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the
> courtesy entitled to her. "--Laurie Goldberg, CNN
>

I watched their explaination video on the internet about how it happened (the logos with an X in between) I have ran TV controls before and I accidentally ran the credits in the middle of the show when I was in training. If I didn't know about this opinion arguement thing I would have believed the explaination.
<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
> http://www.dailypundit.com/graphics/cnncall.wav
>
> Complaint call to CNN; the caller was told that someone was
> using their "freedom of speech" to express their opinion
> about the vice president by putting an X over his face
> during a speech. I don't recall this happening when Gore was
> VP.
> There's a difference between covering the news and
> commenting on it. CNN
> crossed the line. Probably time to boycott them. Then again,
> lots of people
> are (low ratings...)

You're a smarter guy than that, raccoon. C'mon. Listen to the call. There are a few weird things going on here.

It doesn't sound to me like the guy answering the phone has any idea what the caller was talking about, first of all. If her "news release" about the call is to be believed, she claims to have been calling the "Headline News" desk. HN didn't carry the speech, or put the X up on screen. CNN did. There's no way anybody at Headline would know what this woman (who comes across over the phone like she's ranting) was talking about. Even if it was actually a "CNN call center" (which apparently exists, though I've never seen a phone number for it), the call was supposedly made between 9 and 10 PM, eastern. CNN's airing commentary programming during those hours, and my bet is that whoever it was answering the phone thought the "X" had gone up during a commentary show as part of some sort of criticism of the VP, which may explain the "freedom of speech" line. The CNN statement calls the guy a "Turner switchboard operator," which suggests to me that he was probably at the Turner complex over on Techwood Drive and not even at the CNN Center. How would someone in that position have ANY idea what was going on in the CNN control room earlier in the day?

The bit after that about "stop lying" was over the line, sure, and CNN was probably right to fire the guy for that. But to assume that what he said proves anything at all about what still looks to me like a technical goof earlier in the day strains credibility. (So do the lines in the "press release" about the call that talk about "millions" of viewers calling CNN to complain, and that call on the Trilateral Commission - I'm trying like heck to keep a straight face here - to investigate the incident.)

Oh yeah - the call to CNN was placed from California, it seems. In California, it's illegal to record a telephone conversation without the consent of all parties. Funny, I don't hear her notifying the guy on the other end that he's being taped...
 
> Thus far, this has only been mentioned on right wing blog sites.

Of course, the liberal sites aren't going to mention it.
 
Numerous Questions

As posted in Off the Air, there are a number of questions about the veracity of this report. Nobody has yet to produce the purported news release and calls to CNN in Atlanta as late as today brought the reply they knew nothing about it. The organization that distributed the recording issued a bizarre press release which has led some to believe this matter is a hoax.

Until CNN puts this news release on their site along with the billions of other news releases they issue, I'd call this story questionable.
 
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