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How CNN’s Elise Labott Just Scored Major Points For Republicans

Published on: November 20, 2015 at 6:30 PM
By Aric Mitchell

By now, Elise Labott of CNN has made herself a household name, and not in a good way. At least, not in a good way if you’re a journalist hoping to remain impartial.

Following the House’s vote to restrict Syrian refugees on Thursday, Nov. 19, Labott took a moment to jab Republicans on Twitter.

Here was her exact message.

While technically the shot was also aimed at the 47 Democrats, who broke rank with the White House and voted with Republicans, it was not hard for the right’s “media bias brigade” — led by GOP Presidential candidates Ben Carson and Donald Trump — to make the connection.

Predictably, CNN suspended Elise Labott for editorializing on the job. Today, she sent out the following mea culpa.

Immediately she was barraged by supporters telling her she had nothing to be sorry about, that she “spoke the truth the first time,” but the reality is that Labott messed up big-time.

Admittedly, compared to the amount of editorializing that goes on with journalists on both political sides these days, Labott’s statement was a small one, but no less damaging in the sense that the GOP has done an excellent job of playing the media bias card this campaign cycle.

Republicans have always criticized the media for going harder on them, but those complaints seem to be picking up ever more steam with the seemingly bulletproof approval rating of Trump.

There is also this somewhat damning statistic published in 2014 by the Washington Post .

“A majority of American journalists identify themselves as political independents although among those who choose a side Democrats outnumber Republicans four to one,” writes contributor Chris Cillizza, referencing a study of the media conducted by two Indiana University professors.

Lars Wilnat and David Weaver, professors of journalism at Indiana, found that in a 12-year span, from 2002 to 2014, the percentage of full-time U.S. journalists claiming to be Democrats dropped only 8 percentage points to around 28 percent. Only 30 percent of the general population identifies as Democrat.

Of the remaining journalists, only 7.1 percent identified as Republicans compared to 24 percent of the general population, who mark GOP on their voter registration cards.

The takeaways from this?

  1. Democrats do have a much larger mouthpiece in the mainstream media than their GOP counterparts.
  2. This reality is not lost on an increasingly disgruntled Republican electorate, and as a result, they don’t put a lot of stock in stories that are critical of GOP candidates.
  3. Right or wrong, missteps like that of Elise Labott only fuel that perception, making it possible for guys like Donald Trump to say some pretty controversial things and get away with it.

And Trump does seem to be getting away with it. This week, opponents on both the right and the left took aim at “the Donald” for his thoughts about tracking the Muslim population.

Many reports painted Trump as Hitler-esque for even having the idea, yet according to Leslie Savan of The Nation , Trump has a legitimate chance of beating Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“It hurts to put these words in print,” Savan wrote, “but… Ann Coulter may be right. Shortly after the Paris attacks began last Friday, she tweeted, ‘They can wait if they like until next November for the actual balloting, but Donald Trump was elected president tonight.’”

Savan makes no bones about being “terrified” of a “President Trump,” but at the end of the day, it’s a possibility, and that’s due in large part to the inability of the media to deter his supporters.

If anything, they are steeling the resolve of “the Silent Majority,” and tweets like those of Elise Labott play into the narrative.

But what do you think, readers? Did Labott do wrong in tweeting what she did? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image of Elise Labott via CNN]

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