Here’s John Avlon, introducing a new segment on “American Morning” (via Joe Gandleman at TMV):
What’s a Wingnut? It’s someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of American politics – the professional partisans and the unhinged activists – the folks who always try to divide rather than unite. In our polarized two party system, they have disproportionate influence and too often define the terms of debate. With this segment, we’re going to try and take that power back.
In this first week, we’re naming two charter members of the Wingnut Hall of Fame who recently reared their heads in the news once again. We want to be equal opportunity offenders, punching both left and right, so both are members of Congress – one current and one former – and both are defended in their respective echo chambers on the far-right and far-left.
Can you guess who he names before hitting the link?
Bwahahahaha! I think I’m gonna like this segment…
Added afterthought: In light of Fox and MSNBC’s increasing market share (attributed by most to their ever-less-hidden political bias), I wonder whether CNN has decided to get more serious about staking out the middle ground. There’s certainly plenty of room for them to play there.
Hey Polimom, I enjoy your website and posts. I have mixed feelings over this “wingnut” segment. I’d like to see at least one network try to be unbiased, and I’m a little uneasy seeing a CNN commentator labeling politicians as wingnuts no matter how much they deserve it. I do think though that calling people out on their extremism is a good thing in the long run.
My other concern would be the plan for weekly wingnuts. As many wingnuts as there are out there I’m not sure there are enough to make a clearcut choice every week. The two this week are pretty obvious but eventually we will have choices drifting closer to the center and possibly based more on Avlon’s personal political beliefs. A lot depends on Avlon taking a middle-road approach.
Hey there, DaGoat! How nice to see you here in my quiet corner of the blogosphere!
I think your concerns are valid, and time will tell where Avlon falls on the political-bias continuum. But I think it’ll be a very long time before he runs out of easy targets.
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This is good stuff. I especially like Bachmann’s insinuation that swine flu is somehow ratsocrat-linked. I’m not saying it is, but maybe Congress should stop all its business and conduct a full investigation into this charge! We need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission!