CNN Puts Obama In Split-Screen With Bin Laden and Hussein

[sabra]

Run time: 02:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whK4515vD3Q   Posted on YouTube: December 12, 2006 By YouTube Member: tpmmedia Views on YouTube: 9131   Posted on DU: December 12, 2006 By DU Member: sabra Views on DU: 5547

 

[dipsydoodle]

1. Yeh - what's in a name

Is there much difference then between Al Quaeda and Al Jolson ?

[Stardust]

65. Or Al Qaeda and Al Gore?

[Jon8503]

2. Is that the best the media and the republicans can do is carry on

about his name. Do they really think that is going to make a differencce to the public that his name is Barak Obama. These people are reaching.

Christ, ABC running that stupid program just before election trying to help Bush. I hope the dems at least try to do something about the corporate media.

[niceypoo]

30. Apparently the MSM and the GOP have learned zero from Nov 7

Let the cards fall where they may...

[DRoseDARs]

3. I was all ready to be mad, then you give us a Jeanie Moss clip...

You bastard, taking the wind out of my sails like that. :thumbsdown:

;)

Jeanie is awesome, one of the few remaining personalities in the MSM that I find is still respectable and rather likable. Her segments are always a hoot.

[progdonkey]

4. same here, I was ready for it to be some serious, subliminal thing...

but it's just Jeanne Moos, and the whole thing was (as usual) totally tongue-in-cheek.

[DRoseDARs]

7. What I find sadder is many people right here on DU won't get it...

...but you know, you just KNOW, that if this had been on the Daily Show or the Colbert Report these very same people would just be laughing and applauding such tongue-in-cheek humor instead of booing and hissing at CNN.

[William769]

54. Man are you speaking the truth on this one!

I just don get some people here sometimes, but then maybe I do and I just don't want to admit it.

:hi:

[mirandapriestly]

39. Are you serious? It's obscene! eom

[jaxx]

5. They ran this shit last night, this morning and this afternoon.

Playing it for all it's worth.....which isn't much unless you're the ignorant on the street who probably think Reagan is still president. Is CNN a threat to this country? Hell yes.

[AlinPA]

6. The bastards will have him in Gitmo by next year. CNN is running with it, Fox

, MSNBC and R's will ask this stuff non-stop. Because of stupid Americans, the guy is stopped before he can make a move. Yes, he won Illinois, but most of those people are enlightened. If he ran, he would not carry a single state south of the Mason-Dixon line or any western/southwestern states except CA, OR, WA.

[JAYJDF]

8. I was pissed at first when I read here that CNN used a split screen for the two.

But, I did listen to the question put to the average joe and I'm afraid it could be a problem. Face it, people in general are lazy and uninformed. Deciding to vote for someone or not for someone on some non related fact. I know Obama's name and face will be thrown to the public at every corner so that will help. I know I like what he has to say and how he comes across.

[DRoseDARs]

9. Jeanie almost certainly told the people she asked who Obama really was...

Her purpose was, always has been, and hopefully always will be to add humor to CNN. This segment was kind of depressing, that people could be that ill-informed, but she still managed to squeeze humor out of it. That's what she does and that's why she's great, bless her.

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. THAT is what I would have liked to have seen and it probably would...

have added to the humor. I'd like to see the reaction when she told people they were shaking in their shoes over a U.S. Senator. The piece just felt unfinished to me.

[progdonkey]

17. I don't think it'll really be a problem...

I mean, we're not yet really into the primary season--and most voters don't pay attention until the general election, if even then really caring who the candidates are--so few of your everyday "low information" voters have even heard the name "Barack Obama." So, when asked on the street about "Obama," they (being generally ill-informed and not wanting to say, "I don't know," or, worse, ask "who?" when the person might be asking about Osama and they don't want to sound like idiots... ironically) assume the person is referring to Osama, so they answer as if that's what the person asked.

The thing is, when it gets more out there that "there's this guy running for president who's name sounds like Osama," more of these same people, when asked about "Obama," will think, "Oh, that must be that guy who sounds like 'Osama,'" and they'll respond correctly (meaning just that they're referring to the right guy).

My point is that I don't think that it'll really be as negative as the Republicans hope it'll be. Right now, yeah, it's kind of scary that you ask someone about Obama and they think you're talking Osama, but I honestly think that, as the election season gets going, it'll end up being a positive identifier for Obama among the low info voters. The only people who'll negatively try to associate him with Osama are Freepers and Republican pundits who are desperate to find something against him, whereas for the majority of people, it'll just be an easy way to remember him.

Hell, if anything, it'll just mean that people are thinking about Osama being free in Afghanistan during the next election and wondering, "Wait, why did we invade Iraq, again?"

[niceypoo]

33. Its only a problem when networks like cnn make an issue of it

Its very apparent that the republicans are mortally afraid of Obama, hense their early attempts at swiftboating him. America has rejected the GOP because they had zero ideas in the last election. This only reinforces it.

[Kolesar]

10. I should cancel my cable since "that company" Time Warner bought old Adelphia

I want to write them a letter and tell them how offensive Glenn Beck is on Headline News

[rodeodance]

11. little minds!

[bookman]

12. Bush - Tush

Only one letter makes the difference. Right?

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

63. bush - lush lol n/t

[liberalpragmatist]

13. This has to be one of the dumbest pieces CNN has ever run

Someone should send this to Jon Stewart.

On the other hand, I will admit that that one radio talk show host's stunt, asking people if "Barack Obama" was a threat, was pretty funny.

Seriously, though - his name will not be an issue. By the end of a campaign, everybody in America will know who Barack Obama is.

[w4rma]

24. That was a surprisingly fair report. (nt)

[IndyOp]

14. Unacceptable. (n/t)

[DRoseDARs]

15. Indeed. It's terrible that, because it's CNN, some people automatically assume this is a hit piece.

I agree, totally unacceptable.

[IndyOp]

16. You have a good point. I assumed that because it was corporate media -

it was a stupid comparison, though I did not assume it was an intentional hit piece. I don't have anything against CNN, I just assumed that it was a stupid comparison. As it turns out, it was... but on the part of uninformed US citizens. Then again, does this piece make US citizens more informed? Was putting Obama/Osama/Hussein on split screen necessary -- given that we know that visual images have an immediate visceral impact that words usually do not?

:shrug:

[DRoseDARs]

18. I feel bad for poor Jeanie. This is the woman's schitck, nothing political about it...

...and she's being burned at the stake for it indirectly.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2905354

Is it her fault that some people are too lazy to watch the full segment? Is it her fault when people purposely take the screenshot of Obama juxtaposed with bin Laden and Saddam or simply provide a clip and not give it a proper contextual title or description? We bitch and moan when conservatives take the things we say and do out of context, but it's ok when we do it to Jeannie/CNN?

[Pacifist Patriot]

27. I have a problem with the segment but not because of the split screen.

Well, actually I have a problem with the split screen, but that's something else entirely.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=9597&mesg_id=9718

[D23MIURG23]

19. I was waiting for that.

I figured it wouldn't come untill primary season though.

[uberllama42]

20. I think people are just that ignorant

Look at all those clueless people on the street who said he was a threat to our country. I think this piece is quite legitimate, product of the MSM or not. What percentage of Bushies in 2000 thought they were voting for his father? Names very much do matter. For some people, the name and the letter next to on the ballot are the only contact they have with a candidate.

BTW, I bet you could do some Borat-style exploration of the more rural areas of this country, go around with a picture of Obama, and get people to say he is a threat to the country.

[crim son]

21. This is news? "Only one little consonant..."

There can be no excuse for such a waste of airtime unless it's to form an association in peoples' minds between Obama and Osama.

[ClickClack]

42. Please get a clue. It was a piece of fluff, intended to be humorous. In fact...

...the whole idea of the piece was to point out that many people are uninformed and pay insufficient attention to anything outside of their immediate social circles. Did you actually watch the piece before commenting?

Am I the only one who remembers that the late, great Steve Allen used to do man-on-the-street interviews in which he would ask questions that revealed the ignorance of those with whom he spoke? For example, "Would you vote for a candidate who was a known heterosexual?" Similar queries might involve asking people about "thespians." The poorly informed chumps always ended up looking like fools because they were commenting on things about which they had very poor understanding -- like the dopes who still think that Saddam Hussein had some involvement with al Qaeda or the 9/11 attacks, or that coalition forces found WMD in Iraq, or that John Kerry's botched punchline was in any way intended as a slam against our armed forces.

[crim son]

46. Laughing.

Okay, I now have a clue. Thanks for your kindly heads-up.

[ClickClack]

47. You're welcome! (And thanks for recognizing that my response was...

...not intended as a flame or a mean-spirited slam!) :-)

[Roland99]

22. It's a tongue-in-cheek piece that does reveal how FUCKING STUPID many Americans are.

I weep for this nation. :(

[connecticut yankee]

25. Unfortunately,

they're the people who vote.

I wouldn't put anything past the Repukes -- if they can sway people by using the name game, they will. Look how they associated Max Cleland with bin Laden, and people fell for it.

They'll be trumpeting "Hussein" and "Osama/Obama" as much as they can. They've been doing it for some time on the right wing blogs.

[IWantAChange]

35. Dubyha in office proves that point emphatically.

[cboy4]

23. What was VERY DISTURBING about that story was

the reporter interviewed an African American who said she didn't know who Obama was! :wtf:

That's disgraceful.

[bigscott]

50. stupid knows no color

there are plenty of people of all colors that don't know who he is. Just because they are the same color as Barak does not make them any more - or less- stupid. there are plenty of white people i dont know

[cboy4]

52. I didn't say she was "stupid." I said it was disgraceful, whether it's

her fault or not.

This is a man whose been all over the news --- and African American person, with a very distinct name --- who is probably going to be running for president.

With the exception of Alan Keyes, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.....how many other black people have run for that office??

That's why it's more inexcusable that she doesn't know, compared to white kids.

I mean, I'd be STUNNED if Obama hasn't been discussed numerous times in her social studies/history class.

That was my point.

Not that she's stupid.

[Pacifist Patriot]

26. What bothered me about the piece was the lack of a conclusion.

A reporter or anchor should have said, "This segment is depressing evidence of widespread ignorance and high susceptibility to not very subtle influence on the part of unethical political operatives in this country. Barack Obama is a distinguished United States Senator you fucking morons."

OR

Been honest with us and given us the exact breakdown between those who knew who he was and those who did not. I suspect CNN supressed the intelligent responses to make it look worse than it is. I know there are idiots out there, but I have a hard time believing they couldn't find anyone who knew their question was stupid.

[flying_wahini]

28. CNN stands for - sell out to the smallest minded anyway,

I have just about stopped watching them altogether
seems like the whole USA media is so busy examining how to keep
up (or down) with FAUX news that they just gave up doing real news.
Is it the fact that most of the journalists don't have brains?
The I wanna be a star "journalists" doing bullshit fluff trickles into
the public "don't know and don't care if I do know" mindset of Americans.
Gawd, let's get out of this country now, while there is still time........
sorry for being so negative, it just gets to me....

[2Design]

31. see how easy it was for BFEE to associate IRAQ and 911

Most people have not a clue

[Branjor]

32. Oh my...

and he's left handed too. :eyes:

[IWantAChange]

34. CNN joins the Faux News generation - no longer news but a 'show'

The premise was ridiculous - almost slanderous - a split screen and questioning some bozos on the street. Another example of the liberal media???

:sarcasm:

[Dookiestix]

36. Americans are idiots

Is this any surprise? The idiot rightwingers are going to obviously jump on this every second, especially with Barack's middle name. Forget the fact that it was his grandfather's first name, who is from Kenya, not Iraq. Rightwingers have always had a difficult time when it comes to basic geography.

[liberal hypnotist]

37. Helps Obama name recognition.

At first i was upset with Jeannie Moose or is it Mose, ah what's in a name. But, then I see it as a free ad worth lotsa name recognition. Watch Obama put a positive spin on it. That's why i like him.

[mirandapriestly]

38. I can't believe it, how blatant!!

To those of you who think that is no big deal, that is one of the worse sublimal propaganda efforts I have ever seen.

[bigpenguin]

40. This is easy to fix.

If the Republican party wants to point out to people that the name Barack Obama makes people think of Osama Bin Laden, then we just need to point out that the name George W. Bush makes people think of George W. Bush. That's much more scary.

[rocktivity]

53. Yeah--didn't a guy end up in jail

for making a reference to "a burning bush?"

:headbang:
rocknation

[ClickClack]

43. And I can't believe how many people are totally misinterpreting this!

"...subliminal propaganda"? You must be joking. It was a typical Jeannie Mose piece: a lighthearted, non-serious, non-news bit of intended humor. After viewing it, one could only come away thinking how sad it is that so many people are so dumb.

[Mrspeeker]

41. CNN should run with this for days!

It much more entertaining seeing how stupid and mislead the American People are, than actually broadcasting real news so that maybe the American people wouldn't be so stupid and mislead!

[ClickClack]

44. Anyone else here remember Steve Allen's man-on-the-street interviews?

Am I the only one who remembers that the late, great Steve Allen used to do man-on-the-street interviews in his TV shows, in which he would ask questions that revealed the ignorance of those with whom he spoke? For example, "Would you vote for a candidate who was a known heterosexual?" Similar queries might involve asking people about "thespians." The poorly informed chumps always ended up looking like fools because they were commenting on things about which they had very poor understanding -- like the dopes who still think that Saddam Hussein had some involvement with al Qaeda or the 9/11 attacks, or that coalition forces found WMD in Iraq, or that John Kerry's botched punchline was in any way intended as a slam against our armed forces.

That's what this Jeannie Mose piece was; nothing more. Not a sinister hit piece, not propaganda through subliminal association, not a sinister plot. The only thing missing was a few reaction shots from the interviewees when she told them who Obama actually was. That would have helped, but jeeeeeze, lighten up folks.

[namvet73]

49. Steve Allen also wrote a book called "Dumbth." Exposing..

the extreme ignorance of much of the population.

Jay Leno has done some similar interviews. He asked questions like "Do you know where "Rhode Island is"
and got an answer like "I dunno, like somewhere near Africa?"

Incidentally, "Dumbth" (pronounced dum-eth) is an excellent read.

[Erechtheides]

45. I don't suppose

anyone's linking him to Ehud Barak?

What a bunch of idiots. If this is the best they can come up with, Obama must be feeling pretty secure right about now.

[namvet73]

48. I think he should change his name to Elvis Jesus Jones for less informed citizens. n/t

[Deep13]

51. Wow, Obama and Osama sound similar. That IS news.

I am so glad CNN pointed that out to me, because I have never heard that before from anyone. Really. No, I mean it. For real.:sarcasm:

[Tiggeroshii]

55. It hink it makes a good point

and will hopefully also educates some of those people who think Barack Obama poses a threat tot he United States.

[Bushies gotta go]

56. the stupidity of the typical American on the street is sickening.

and it's no wonder, having such a stupid idiot for a president and "role model"

[liberal hypnotist]

57. Stupidity?

Many Americans read at an 8th grade. That is why Baby George is President. Rather than being repulsed, Karl Rove is making a living at appealing to the 'typical american".

[McCamy Taylor]

58. CNN does the RNC's bidding, but the RNC is trying to promote Obama as

as Democratic front runner for the 2008 election, because it scares their own base, so there is no reason for CNN to trash talk Obama. Instead, the CNN piece is a very light hearted attempt to make fun of people who do not know who Obama is, in this time of Obama-mania. After watching the CNN video, the viewer comes away with the sense that Obama is as American as apple pie.

[benny05]

59. That's so proposterous of CNN..

I can see faux news, but this is smear through and through.

[rniel]

60. shit

from the network that brought us Glen Beck. What more could you expect.

[illinoisprogressive]

61. One of the Culprits got his tonight

Mr. Barnes who loves stressing Obama's middle name and sorta started this whole thing got nailed on Hardball. I guess being really sick made Matthews a little more sharper edged at ruthugs.
He teased Barnes good natured about his Hussien thing and then went on to discuss the topics. At the end he suddenly asked Barnes what his middle name was. Now, the one group the gop hates more than muslims is the french. Barnes middle name is MAURICE!
I think we should call fred Maurice from now on.

[illinoisprogressive]

62. This is why Obama talks about his religion

Because of his name and the gops love of smearing, he is talking about his religion and his church to signal he is a christian and not a muslim. He belongs to a liberal church and wants the right and the african american community to know he isn't a muslim. Alot of good it did him.

[NobleCynic]

64. I'm not sure this was a "hit piece"

It seemed neutral to sympathetic if anything

[Voltaire99]

66. Better to put him in a split-screen with Lieberman and Hillary...

...his models for center-right politics.

[DAMANgoldberg]

67. Think about it...

When was the last African-American politician that got elected to a statewide office or was a national candidate ever run to "the left"? It's hard enough overcoming the "black" factor, so you have to appeal to everyone to get elected, and that means the Center-Right.

The Cynthia McKinney's, Maxine Waters, etc. of the world are in "safe" districts (Ms. McKinney was not re-elected due to her own issues). None of them are running statewide races.

Douglas Wilder (D-VA, now mayor of Richmond) and Devan Patrick (D-MA) aren't classic liberals as governors. Barack Obama would not be senstor of Illinois just on Chicagoland voting. He had to "play in Peoria". Harold Ford (D-TN) and Michael Steele (R-MD) made it close running to the center.

[NV1962]

68. Where oh where is today's H.L. Mencken... (n/t)

[Imagevision]

69. Quite onviously the Republicans have their panties in a bunch over Obama

So, CNN begins the flip-flop contest, apparently CNN believes there are that many ignorant sheeple out there. Democrats can be this stoopid?!!