The Cable Gamer didn't really have an opinion on blogger Erick Erickson, who just got hired as a commentator on CNN. She knew him as the proprietor of RedState.com, and that was about it.
Then TCG read this editorial in The Boston Globe. After noting that CNN had fired Lou Dobbs, replacing him with the more traditional (read: traditionally liberal) John King, the Globe then noted CNN's reverse-course in the hiring of Erickson. In other words, the Erickson hire was one of those sudden moves, the kind of move you make when you're panicking. (And all this time, I had thought that Jon Klein was serene in fifth place in the Nielsens, even as he talking about taking on Facebook and other social networks.)
Indeed, CNN's hiring of Erickson reminds TCG of MSNBC's flirtation with Alan Keyes and Michael Savage a few years back. You remember them--they were right-wingers of an either nutty or thuggish streak, and they lasted just a few months on MSNBC. Of course they didn't last, because they were way too raw and weird for TV--anybody's TV--and of course, the suits at MSNBC never really had their heart in either hire. So that was the end of Keyes and Savage, and nobody at MSNBC was sorry to see them go.
Now Erickson. You can bet that CNN is hating itself in the morning--because they know that they will be attacked from the left every day that Erickson is on the air. And because the attacks will be coming from fellow liberals and leftists, they will sting, in a way that attacks from avowed enemies don't seem to hurt so much. And these attacks will take their toll, subconsciously; and so, from the producers to the camera operators, everyone at CNN will be putting the proverbial banana peel in Erickson's path. And the likes of Media Matters and Gawker will be there to snarkily record every mistake or misstep Erickson makes, either on camera or off camera.
Speaking of Media Matters, I have no doubt that the Globe got the material for its editorial from MM, or some equivalent. But nonetheless, it is a little startling to read some of these quotes, below. What Fox understands, and CNN and MSNBC don't, is that it's fine to have strong opinions, but it's not fine to say them in a cloddish way. Sean Hannity, for example, is an opinionated fellow, but he never gets nasty. In fact, on his show last night, covering the healthcare debate, he was downright informative, patiently going through all the constitutional and procedural ins and outs with various guests. It was a civics lesson, in fact.
Is Erickson capable of such erudition, or is he just out to insult people? And does CNN know how to bring him along, to help him say what he knows, and thinks--as opposed to just venting? The Cable Game is a lot more than just presenting opinions--it's about presenting opinions, and news, with style and grace.
Here's the Globe edit:
It’s therefore a sad step backwards to learn the CNN recently hired RedState.com editor Erick Erickson as a new political contributor, since he embodies the most skewed tendencies of CNN’s rivals. The move will likely draw ratings, but at a cost to civility: At a time when even Congress has turned into an ideological mosh pit, CNN is employing one of the blogosphere’s more offensive, divisive figures.
Erickson has a well-established mean streak and a tendency to fall back on ad hominem attacks. He wrote that Michelle Obama is a “Marxist harpy wife.’’ On Twitter, he recently urged “ugly feminists’’ to “return to the kitchen.’’
And his ire isn’t reserved for hot-button political issues: In reference to an impending ban in Washington state on dishwasher detergents made with phosphates, Erickson wrote, “At what point do the people . . . get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?“
Some of his rants can’t be printed in a newspaper — he once referred to former Supreme Court Justice David Souter in obscene terms that involved bestiality.
Erickson is just one pundit, of course, but he’s a symptom of the larger problem: a discourse that has devolved to a level which would embarrass most chimpanzees. CNN has made legitimate efforts to use its clout to help solve the problem, but now it seeks to profit off of it.
So enjoy your time at CNN, Erick. You might help on the ratings a bit, but it won't be long before the liberal entity that is CNN decides that you are more trouble than you are worth.
