CNN framing the dialog on FISA
This morning CNN ran a story about President Bush’s comments about the Economy and the FISA bill. Needless to say the dialog after the story, the one in the comments, was just as interesting as the story. And there were some gently dissenting viewpoints.
However, and here’s where it gets interesting– I have commented numerous times on CNN stories. My comments never get posted. My comments always include a bit that the CNN story left out. This leads me to believe that CNN is framing the dialog as much as it frames the story.
In this particular case I commented that the story in question (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/28/bush/index.html and no, I won’t grace them with a link) did not state that the expiration of FISA did NOT result in any additional threat to the US from terrorists since existing wiretaps could still continue, and new wiretaps could be started in an emergency with no FISA warrant as long as one was applied for within 72 hours of the initiation of the wiretap. I also quoted Ted Kennedy’s speech to the Senate, in which he said, “The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity, no new FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he is willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.”
The last three times I commented were also on CNN FISA stories. In one case I was one of the very first commenters, I added what the story was missing, which was basically similar to what I stated above, and then too the comment was never posted.
One has to wonder what CNN has to gain from this framing of the dialog . . . has anyone else noticed a similar disparity in what comments CNN chooses to let through? If so, what subject matter did CNN frame dialog on in your case?
Hmm, I don’t have a TV so I can’t check this . . . are Defense of Democracies spots running on CNN owned stations?
