Corporate Media Get Another Injection of Conservative Commentators

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 12:27 PM on August 14, 2008.

CNN continues to add to its team of political commentators, and announced five new members of the team yesterday. Atrios posted the press release, which touted the network adding "five more top political reporters and commentators to its deep bench of political contributors and analysts."

* David Brody, senior national correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. A veteran journalist of more than 20 years, Brody writes the political blog, "The Brody File."

* Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist and former campaign consultant for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and corporate consulting firm.

* Dana Milbank, a Washington Post staff writer and author of the thrice-weekly "Washington Sketch" column. A veteran of political coverage, he has also worked for The New Republic and The Wall Street Journal, and his latest book is Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government.

* Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist and currently the political director and Washington editor-at-large for HuffingtonPost.com. In a previous role, she was chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.

* Tara Wall, deputy editorial page editor and columnist for The Washington Times. Previously, she served as director of the office of public affairs at the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and as director of outreach communications for the Republican National Committee.

For those keeping score at home, that's three conservatives -- including a correspondent for a crazed televangelist who blamed 9/11 on Americans -- one liberal, and Dana Milbank, who tends to skewer without ideological preferences. As Yglesias noted, "While contemplating whether this should make you laugh or cry, consider that this is actually an improvement over what we usually get."

Let's also consider these hires in the broader context of CNN's recent moves.

CNN's last major addition to its political news team was Frances Fragos Townsend, Bush's former chief terrorism adviser, best known for misleading the media on a regular basis.

Before Townsend, CNN hired:

* Tony Snow (conservative Republican)

* J.C. Watts (conservative Republican)

* William Bennett (conservative Republican)

During its coverage of the New Hampshire primaries, CNN even invited Ralph Reed on as a commentator, despite the fact that Reed disgraced himself in his role in the Abramoff scandal.

So, out of the last nine additions to CNN's political team, we have one liberal: Hilary Rosen.

Not bad for a news network that conservatives used to argue is biased against them.

Tagged as: mainstream media sucks

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.