Saturday, August 30, 2008

Another Attempt at GOP "Celebrity Parallelism" Is Really Wrong

A bizarre article from CNN called "GOP to have its share of stars, too, is currently the #3 most viewed article on CNN.com. I thought it would be in the vein of article I pointed to the other day, with a thin set of low-profile celebrities that are actually Republican supporters.

Apparently, however, it doesn't even support its headline.

It begins:
(CNN) -- Now it's the Republicans' turn.

The Democrats turned out the star power for its convention in Denver, Colorado, right up to the final night, when the 80,000-strong crowd attending Sen. Barack Obama's closing speech at Invesco Field was serenaded by Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder, among others.

The Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, may not have the same oomph, but it won't lack for well-known visitors.
Sounds like we'll hear about all kinds of events related to the Convention, right?

But then it proceeds to give a list of performers and organizations who are indeed in the same city at the same time, clearly intentionally, but apparently not promoting the GOP, as the examples of Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder were:
  • Members and events related to "the nonpartisan Creative Coalition," who are in Twin Cities after having been in Denver this past week. They are "devoted to arts advocacy as well as issues such as health care and affordable housing."

  • A couple concerts sponsored by an anti-AIDS and global poverty group, the ONE campaign, also "nonpartisan."

  • Beach Boys, Gretchen Wilson, and Sammy Hagar are all playing concerts in the same city as the convention, though no claim is made that they represent any kind of Republican support.

  • Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, "one of the GOP's biggest celebrity names" will in fact not be there.

  • Rage Against the Machine, as non-GOP-supporting as you can get, is playing during the week.

  • And finally, "there are also several arts-related events in a lower key."

Seems like the headline should have been: "No Celebrities Interested In Standing with GOP at Convention"

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:00 PM

    CNN provides such lopsided coverage, they must have hired-on as consultants to the DNC. And why does CNN spend so much time with Celebrities anyhow? No voter should care what any of them think.

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  2. I so agree with you, but it is most definitely supporting Conservatives! lol Yep we don't call it CNN the Conservative News Network for nothing!But who really cares for what any old fool says, it may just be the sensitive nature of the artists that drive them to try to help others, not dismiss they're attempts to speak truth and what about those darn Pumas,, there must have been one of them there, but I sure didn't see the huge fight CNN and other corporate mouthpieces pretended was going to take place. The Democratic Convention was covered by CNN and others with pure pessimism. It was outrageous, Pumas my other end!

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  3. To clarify the point of my post: I'm not making a judgement either way here on the political efficacy of "celebrity" support or on how much any individual should care what political candidate their favorite celebrity likes.

    I'm pointing out here that CNN has posted a false-parallel article.

    They wanted to write an article that showed that both parties have "celebrity support" - either from laziness (because such parallelism article writes itself, whatever the facts) or from a "conservative" slant.

    However, the facts as they selected them in the article don't even pretend to support their article.

    It's like they had an article titled "Pizza Popularity Growing in US," and then interviewed a bunch of people who talked about pickles, chips, and ratatouille, and then some Germans and some South Africans who like pizza.

    In sum, shitty article.

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  4. Anonymous12:19 AM

    OMG! Are you kiddin? My sides hurt from laughing so hard after reading this crap. Rage is using them the RNC to pay $ to the Dems or someone. The Beach Boys?? Ugh, what drivel. Sorry, no comparison my friends.

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  5. Anonymous12:39 AM

    WHO GIVES A CRAP ANYWAY????

    and yes I thought it was hilarious that RAGE is charging @the RNC local event, but didn't @the DNC one.... I think that message was pretty clear...!
    Especially if they sell out... hahaha

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  6. I read this article, and had the same reaction - WTF? It didn't really explicitly mention if any of the celebs were actually going to BE at the RNC. And, more importantly, I don't think anyone would say any of the celebs mentioned are considered hot -- except for I guess, Gretchen Wilson (which I can't really say since I don't like country music). Clearly a loooooong stretch to find commonality between the two parties.

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  7. celebrities?! how about C-listers and bottom-feeders?Charkie Daniels? Thought he died a decade ago. ..Sammy Hagar, a republiKKKan?and that is the top, lol... what,couldn`t get toilet fish like Heidi and Spencer to give the keynote speech?

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  8. Anonymous10:07 AM

    Democracy not welcomed in Minnesota.
    BY ORDER of the POLICE

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous12:34 AM

    That article was a complete shell game and a scam. The RNC has NO celebrities attending at all. CNN is a joke. I have never seen such sleight of hand used before in a piece to convey a blatant untruth. Must have been written by three CNN lawyers.

    ReplyDelete