Legal Commentary

Coverage Of The Dem Results In Florida

By Big Tent Democrat

NBC is at pains to NOT report the Dem results in Florida. Let's be clear, this is NOT a normal primary. There was no campaigning (though Obama ran a national ad and that reached Florida, and union allies for Clinton and Obama dropped literature in Florida). The DNC has ruled that no delegates will be awarded, though it is clear that it will be the Dem convention that makes that decision. It is not a win like Obama's in South Carolina.

But a lot of people voted. Indeed, Hillary is likely to have TWICE as many people vote for her than watch Keith Olbermann's program. It ill behooves them to ridicule the votes of Floridians who outnumber MSNBC viewers by a factor of 4. IF we start playing THAT numbers game, then let's all make fun of MSNBC's viewership.

MSNBC is now providing punditcasts, not newscasts. Indeed, it is providing information that is simply false. For example, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann labelled the vote "illegal." Here's a newsflash NBC, a political party is not sovereign. It does not pass laws. That would be governments that do that. And the Florida primary was enacted by the Florida state government in CONTRAVENTION of both Republican and Democratic Party rules. The penalties were different. Is the Republican primary "illegal?"

I know this is a quaint idea, but it would be nice if a "news" organization actually did not report falsehoods. But to call MSNBC a newss organization regarding this election is now a joke. CNN handled the coverage properly in my opinion.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 29, 2008 (boomark / email).