So, CNN's Soledad O'Brien has been named by Newsweek as one of the "15 People Who Make America Great." Newsweek sets forth its evidence:
In a drowning city, who spoke out for those in despair? She did.
...Simple, human kindness—the kind you can teach a child—was embarrassingly absent in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. As the country watched in horror as state and federal officials did little to help the stranded multitudes, television anchors, who so often act as though they're not of this world, for once understood the outrage. As the days wore on and the city continued to flounder, they articulated our astonishment at the vast incompetence we all witnessed.
No anchor's transformation was more impressive than O'Brien's....
This has got to be one of the single most dishonest and inane rationalizations for an award I've ever heard (and when you live in Washington, you hear a lot of those.)
So allow me to translate what MSNBC-sibling Newsweek was really saying about why they chose O'Brien as the cable news representative of the 15:
"We couldn't pick anyone from MSNBC or NBC for their work during Katrina, because it would be laughable favoritism. We're certainly not going to pick the obvious and correct choice--Shepard Smith of Fox News--because we hate FNC for its success and its fair and balanced principles. That leaves CNN. We're not picking Anderson Cooper, because everyone's sick of him, even him. So lessee here...wait! I've got it! Soledad O'Brien! Nobody can get mad at that--she's the human version of a wedding cake! Nothing sweeter, nicer or more wholesome. Soledad, you win! As soon as you can step over the bleeding, crying, shaking figure of your latest celebrity interviewee curled up in a fetal position on the 'American Morning' set floor, come right over here for pictures..."
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