Matt Yglesias

CNN Wants Its Viewers to Be Misinformed

Steve Hayes is not what you would call a reliable source of information. His first book, The Connection: How al Qaeda’s Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America was a deliberate attempt to mislead the public about the subject at hand. Based on his willingness to lie on behalf of the conservative movement, he secured the position of court biographer to Dick Cheney, and duly produced the required hagiography. To the best of my knowledge, Hayes has never made a single good analytic point on any subject, or introduced any useful new information into the public debate. Nobody outside the deepest recesses of the conservative cocoon has ever been impressed by a Stephen F. Hayes article.

Naturally enough, CNN, which obviously has contempt for its audience and for the concept of journalism, sent out this press release yesterday: “Stephen F. Hayes Joins CNN’s Best Political Team on Television”:

“Steve is a well-respected and knowledgeable journalist who already has become a natural part of CNN’s political coverage,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s political director. “As part of the ‘Best Political Team on Television,’ Steve will help CNN in its commitment to go beyond political spin and present viewers with the most in-depth and bipartisan insights.”

I would be fascinated to hear Feist explain by what standard Hayes is well-respected. Perhaps he could identify some people who respect Hayes?

The New Beer Track

In the spirit of Barack Obama’s call for national reconciliation and a de-escalation of the culture wars, after knocking off work yesterday I went with Chris Hayes (pictured) and Ari Berman of The Nation and Mike Tomasky of The Guardian to grab some beers and, like any good beer-track voter, pair them with a selection of local cheeses.

This was all in St. Paul’s Summit Heights neighborhood, which seemed to come straight out of liberal elite central casting. Indeed, we literally — and not just Joe Biden literally, but actually literally — wound up in Garrison Keillor’s living room. He turns out to be a very generous host, but not a blog reader. The other place I went in St. Paul that was good was Golden’s Deli on the other side of downtown. A local independent media operation called The Uptake secured the location as a workspace and also secured a bunch of delicious sandwiches.