Erin Burnett

CNN Pounces on Ailes Calling Obama 'Lazy;' Mostly Ignores That He Cited Obama's Words
By Matt Hadro | March 7, 2013 | 5:33 PM EST

CNN harped on the controversy over Fox News head Roger Ailes calling President Obama "lazy" and Vice President Biden "dumb as an ashtray." The network covered it on five shows on Wednesday and Thursday, but three of the shows ignored that Ailes used Obama's own words.

In making the "lazy" remark, Ailes cited a 2011 interview with Barbara Walters where Obama said that "deep down, underneath all the work that I do, I think there's a laziness in me." Erin Burnett was the only CNN anchor to promptly give that context in her report; on Thursday's Starting Point, conservative panel member Will Cain first brought it up, and co-host John Berman affirmed it.

CNN Mocks Rand Paul Drone Filibuster, Plays Up Supposed Racism of Fox’s Roger Ailes
By Matthew Sheffield | March 7, 2013 | 5:42 AM EST

During the Wednesday edition of her CNN program “Outfront,” host Erin Burnett and her producers just could not stop themselves from deriding Kentucky Republican Rand Paul’s filibuster effort to block a Senate vote on John Brennan, President Obama's choice for CIA director.

While the show did give some serious discussion to the substance of Paul’s concern on behalf of Americans’ civil liberties, during the introduction of the segment, Burnett treated the matter rather flippantly and featured a graphic of the senator entitled “Sen. Paul Drones On… And On…”

CNN Hammers Catholic Church to Change Teaching on Gay Marriage, Birth Control
By Matt Hadro | February 12, 2013 | 3:02 PM EST

On Monday night, CNN's Erin Burnett badgered the Catholic church to change its doctrine and accept birth control, gay marriage, and women priests. All day long on Monday, CNN asked if the church was going to change with the times but Burnett was blatant in her push for liberalization of doctrine.

"Isn't it time for the church, which is supposed to be an inclusive, generous, giving organization, to move ahead on gay rights?" she asked her guest a loaded question. When he answered no, she hit back, "Even if they [gay people] love each other, isn't the Catholic Church supposed to be about love?"

CNN Cancels Soledad O’Brien Show, Says It Wasn’t Due to ‘Ethnic’ Viewership
By Randy Hall | January 31, 2013 | 11:21 PM EST

The tumult at CNN that has seen several contributors leave the cable news network continued on Wednesday, when Soledad O'Brien's morning show, “Starting Point,” was canceled because her program's small audience was “too ethnic, based on the high concentration of minority viewers.”

Despite ending O'Brien's morning show, a CNN spokesman told Politico on Thursday that "Soledad is very important to the network, and we're discussing various options with her.”

Stranger to Erin Burnett: You Work for CNN? Yeah, You're 'In the Can for Obama'
By Geoffrey Dickens | October 24, 2012 | 11:51 AM EDT

If you work for CNN apparently your reputation as a liberal journalist precedes you, at least that's what CNN's Erin Burnett revealed to Conan O'Brien on Tuesday night. The OutFront host, appearing as a guest on TBS's Conan, relayed that when she told a passenger, on a recent flight, that she worked for CNN the passenger replied: "Oh yeah. In the can for Obama."

Burnett's anecdote came during a discussion of how she was forced to watch the final presidential debate on her outbound flight to appear on Conan O'Brien's late night talk show. (video after the jump)

New Gallup Poll Shreds CNN's Speculation on Women, Abortion, and the GOP
By Matt Hadro | October 23, 2012 | 6:23 PM EDT

After a USA Today/Gallup poll showed women in swing states thought abortion the top election issue, CNN hyped the news and cast a wary eye toward "controversial" Republican positions as the possible catalysts. Five days later, however, Gallup reported that, nationally, abortion is near the bottom of importance among voters.

CNN hosts Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper led their October 18 shows with the swing state poll, and anchor Carol Costello touted it the next morning. Costello wondered if "controversial" statements by certain Republicans were to blame for women suddenly treating abortion with utmost importance.

CNN Keeps Hitting Libya Fiasco While Networks Drop Story
By Matt Hadro | October 2, 2012 | 4:26 PM EDT

CNN reported a new bombshell in the ongoing Libya fiasco on Monday night, while the networks had already moved on from the story. CNN's Erin Burnett disclosed that "key intelligence" was left out of the post-Libya narrative given to the American public. The networks made no mention of Libya all day Monday and through Tuesday morning after being late to new developments in the story.  

"[T]here were a decision made as to some of these key things that obviously are now considered to be crucial to this – essential to this attack were left out of the briefing points given to Congress and given to the American people," Burnett reported.

CNN Hypes Romney Tape as 'Monumental Gaffe,' 'Manna from Heaven for the Left'
By Matt Hadro | September 19, 2012 | 12:49 PM EDT

Who needs campaign staff when you have CNN to tout your "very, very damaging" attack ad? Host Piers Morgan gave President Obama some free publicity Tuesday night while CNN kept the anti-Romney media firestorm raging.

"I'm going to play a new Obama ad which basically sums up how he's going to attack him [Romney]. And it's very, very damaging. Watch this," Morgan told his guests, after he hyped Romney's "monumental gaffe" about the 47 percent of Americans paying no income taxes.

CNN Thinks Cardinal Dolan Is Playing Politics at the RNC; Forgets He Invited Obama to High-Profile Dinner
By Matt Hadro | August 24, 2012 | 1:10 PM EDT

CNN foolishly asked if the head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops was playing politics by giving the benediction at the Republican National Convention, leaving out that the same Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently invited President Obama, along with Mitt Romney, to a high-profile Catholic event, the Al Smith dinner.

"Is this a big play to help shore up Paul Ryan's Catholic base?" anchor Don Lemon asked of the RNC benediction. "How does Dolan help Mitt Romney win Catholics?" inquired OutFront host Erin Burnett.

CNN Rehashes Obama Spin to Whack Romney Ad as 'Ridiculous'
By Matt Hadro | August 10, 2012 | 12:48 PM EDT

It's laughable when CNN's Erin Burnett claims to police "sandbox" politics when she covers for Obama like she did Thursday. Like her colleague Brooke Baldwin did earlier, she stood by the Obama spin that he "compromised" with Catholics on the birth control mandate and attacked a Mitt Romney ad accusing him of waging "war on religion."

"[T]o say this President is waging a war on religion, I mean, the man goes to church. That's ridiculous," Burnett complained. "That ad does not add up," she stated, adding it "seems to be at best simplistic and at worst just wrong."

CNN Hammers Vicious Obama Super PAC Ad That Networks Ignored Entirely
By Matt Hadro | August 9, 2012 | 12:15 PM EDT

For the second straight day, CNN blew the whistle on a nasty and misleading Obama super PAC ad that ABC, CBS, and NBC entirely ignored as of Wednesday night. CNN hammered the ad, which links Mitt Romney to a woman's death from cancer, each hour from 6 p.m. through 10 p.m. and twice grilled the man responsible for the ad, Bill Burton of Priorities USA.

"I think it is deliberately mendacious," stated CNN's Piers Morgan on Wednesday. "It is a deliberate attempt to lie and smear about Mitt Romney. And I find it contemptible. I mean I'm really appalled." The three networks showed no such disdain for the ad which will air in battleground states, because they failed to even mention it on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ramesh Ponnuru Tells CNN's Roland Martin Don't 'Just Be a Political Hack for Your Team'
By Noel Sheppard | August 4, 2012 | 12:02 PM EDT

Roland Martin and National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru had a heated debate Friday about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) unsubstantiated claims regarding Mitt Romney's taxes.

Toward the end of the battle on CNN's OutFront, Ponnuru marvelously told his opponent, "You've got to call these things as you see them, not just be a political hack for your team" (video follows with transcript and commentary):