The Sarah Palin-Joe Biden debate: Revealing the real source of CNN's sources
You know how you watch these presidential and vice presidential debates on television, as a near record number of us did last Thursday with Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, and millions more will tomorrow night from Nashville with John McCain and Barack Obama?
And then afterward the networks switch to what seems to be a palpably proliferating panoply of pundits who tell us all instantly and precisely who won, who scored and lost points and what it all means for America's future? And they keep consulting open laptops for their perceptive notes and quotes?
And sometimes you wonder who appointed them and what makes them think they know more than you?
Well, maybe they don't. The brilliantly observant folks over at Gizmodo.com were watching CNN's political palaverers, including here on the nearest end the big legal expert Jeffrey Toobin. Here's a photo of the panel during coverage of last Thursday night's vice presidential debate:
But the clever Gizmodo.com folks didn't leave it there. They examined the photo more closely.
To see what they found, click on the "Read more" line below.
Ooops, Toobin wasn't even watching the debate he was pontificating about at all.
He was watching the baseball playoffs on his laptop. See the embarrassing enlargement of the first photo here:
Do you suppose the other CNN "analysts" were watching Fox News to crib their insights? Here's the full Gizmodo story. (UPDATE: It seems Jeffrey doesn't learn a lesson from just one mistake. Check out this later Ticket item from about two weeks later.)
-- Andrew Malcolm
Speaking of complete coverage, you can still get free instant alerts on all Ticket items like this flashed direct to your cellphone by registering here at Twitter. RSS feeds are also available here. And Amazon has Ticket Kindle feeds as well.
Photo credit: Gizmodo.com
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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I'm not surprised. Nothing CNN reports is worth watching and don't need it. I get my news from FOX and other reputable sources. CNN BSNBC NBC ABC CBS are so liberal, bi-ass and a turn off. Not any news left much, journalism has died as Hannity says. Same for The Stupid View and Oprah what a bunch of disgusting dumb boring women. What a waste of time, I'd rather have my teeth cleaned, and I hate that.
Posted by: carolyne | October 06, 2008 at 06:54 AM
L.A Times PLEASE Release Video of Obama Publically Praising Former PLO Operative & Jew Hater Rashid Khalidi. PLEASE do the right thing show the world who this man is
Posted by: ed | October 06, 2008 at 10:15 AM
So? Baseball is a source of universal truths.
Posted by: diahni | October 06, 2008 at 10:41 AM
At least Toobin wasn't watching porn. I really appreciate these post-debate discussions because each of these people contributes their own unique observations. I don't agree with them all, but the dialogue does help me form an overall impression of the debate and which candidate answered the questions.
Posted by: John Johnson | October 06, 2008 at 10:46 AM
The "useful idiots" in the media are of no interest to me since they have been as dishonest as the candidate they support.
I don't understand why Obama is not telling the truth, why a guy is running as an African-American? He is 1/2 White, 3/8 Arab and only 1/8 Black.
Shouldn't he be running as White or Arab? I don't care what race he is but when somebody lies to me I have to wonder why. The media has not reported even the basics...why?
Posted by: Mickey | October 06, 2008 at 11:30 AM
The "useful idiots" in the media are of no interest to me since they have been as dishonest as the candidate they support.
I don't understand why Obama is not telling the truth, why a guy is running as an African-American? He is 1/2 White, 3/8 Arab and only 1/8 Black.
Shouldn't he be running as White or Arab? I don't care what race he is but when somebody lies to me I have to wonder why. The media has not reported even the basics...why?
Posted by: Mickey | October 06, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Yeah, cute point, but I wouldn't want to be held to that standard on multi-tasking.
Watching a baseball game is not exactly the mental resource-hog of piloting the lunar module, ya know.
Posted by: Ron Coleman | October 06, 2008 at 12:37 PM
Haha, nice catch!
Posted by: purpleslog | October 06, 2008 at 01:23 PM
What's the surprise? CNN and its "analysts" already had its story outlined and written long before the debate even started.
Obama, I mean Biden, was the winner, no matter what actually occurred on stage. The fact that Biden simplying was pulling crap and "facts" out of his wazoo wasn't going to derail the Biden is the real substantial candidate storyline.
It was even more glaring during the episode with Soledad in which she asked for the show of hands and didn't even wait to count before continuing with the "overwelming Biden win" statement from the telepromptor. Next time they will most likely put a (PAUSE) on the telepromptor so that she doesn't blow the line. It will be interesting to see if she is dumb enough to say: "Show of Hands. Pause...What a orgasmic overwhelming win for our dear beloved leader, Obama."
Only the most ignorant or an Obama supporter would believe anything they hear on CNN.
Posted by: LogicalUS | October 06, 2008 at 02:45 PM
He could have been watching the game while listening to the debate.
The more important issue with CNN's coverage is how several of their "uncommitted" voters miraculously made up their minds for one candidate:
http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/008080.html
It could have just been chance, it could have been a BHO campaign trick, or it could be CNN trickery. It's not like they haven't done things like that before.
Posted by: NoMoreBlatherDotCom | October 06, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Show of hands, how many of you commenters are GOP operatives? Paid or unpaid? I get so tired of your talking points, you are so obviously programmed. Sorry, we don't have to listen to your made-up smears any more.
Posted by: jane gordon | October 07, 2008 at 01:15 AM
well not knowing that cnn already had things before the debate... even went on .....
I'm not surprised. Nothing CNN reports is worth watching and don't need it. and hideing alot of other information is not helping us as a country .... we are trying to figure out as a counrty who would be a better president and for them to be lieing to us is just making the situation worse...
Posted by: CB | October 07, 2008 at 10:06 AM
Mickey: Everyone is African. Africa is the location of the original people we are all connected to. The idea of percentages when race is a human construct doesn't hold much weight.
Posted by: Aaron | October 07, 2008 at 09:04 PM
obama rocks
Posted by: ldkgfkafsdmgbklan | October 13, 2008 at 01:26 PM