PBS 1, CNN 0

I was watching CNN at my Mother's home (I can't afford that level of cable television right now), and one of the shows was advertising the "truth" in all of the talk about the presidential candidates and their ties to lobbyists.

I've spoken before about how bad the situation is in Washington, D.C. regarding the lobbyists, but CNN went to an all-time low this evening. They started off with a report about ties to lobbyists for the two major candidates. It was concluded that McCain still has ties with federal lobbyists and Obama only has ties to state lobbyists, not federal lobbyists. What they failed to mention is that Obama does have a few ties (AIPAC being one of them) and a lot of the "small donations" are being "bundled" by lobbyists, and many of his large donors are hedge fund managers. These are facts documented in printed news media.

CNN did this weak and brief description of what bundling is, obviously the reporter getting their facts doesn't watch PBS. I do. On June 1, 2007 there was a story on Congressional Ethics that does a much better job exposing what is really going on by PBS, specifically The Bill Moyers Journal.

Here's the link to the story if you would like to see it for yourself: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06012007/profile.html. Click on Watch Video to see the segment.

The low point(s) came when the "political analysts" on CNN began defending the lobbyists, claiming they are doing their work on behalf of the American people. For the truth to this, I'll refer back to the Bill Moyers segment.

Why would CNN defend lobbyists and not give the full story of their influence on Washington? Because even CNN (as well as other major networks) has lobbyists to make sure the airwaves (owned by the public) continue to be theirs, free of charge.

Don't believe me? Watch another Bill Moyers Journal on the media and how major networks make a killing during election seasons: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01252008/profile2.html. This one is from January 25, 2008.

Enjoy.