More Anti-Romney Over-Hyped Junk From CNN

I know the title of this piece sounds harsh, but frankly, I'm getting tired of the media's slime.

On the front page of CNN.com, readers encounter the headline "Backers: Romney has mixed messages." This leads to an article titled, "Some Prominent Supporters Blast Romney for Mixed Messages on Health Care 'Tax.'" Notice the word in bold: Some. See it in the following link (I will touch on it shortly): http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/05/some-prominent-supporters-blast-romney-for-mixed-messages-on-health-care-tax/?hpt=hp_t2

Let me start by sharing that I have been saying this all along; the "flip-flopper" claims and the "gaffes" accusations aren't really gaffes at all. They are misrepresentations done by the liberal media. To name a few:

- The media spun the "I like to fire people" quote out of control to fit the media's agenda. Mitt Romney definitely didn't claim he liked to fire people simply because he is the rich, nasty, evil, out-of-touch, old crook that the media wants to paint him as. He said it as a highlighted benefit of the free market system. He wanted to point out that if someone is working for you (a doctor, lawyer, a plumber, etc.) and you don't like their services, you can leave them and get another. That's free market economics. That's choice. But that's not how the media wants you to see it.

- The "etch-a-sketch" controversy. In no way did Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom claim that once the primaries were over Mitt Romney can wipe his positions clean (of course, as the liberal media wants it portrayed). He instead claimed that the target and strategy is now different with a new target and a new goal in mind. It's summed up by a blog reader here: http://loudmouthelephant.blogspot.com/2012/03/readers-post-14-real-men-dont-play-with.html

- This health care ruling and whether it's a "tax" or not. Romney has said the entire time that he supports the Supreme Court's decisions and has called it a tax this whole time. Of course, you wouldn't know this, and if you've read the media's take on this, you're more than likely in the group that believes he has "flip-flopped" on this. The truth is, it was Fehrnstrom that has said he didn't believe it was a tax, but the media automatically associated it with Mitt Romney. Now sure, there is a disconnect there, but the level that it has been overblown and misconstrued on the media's part (over such a ridiculous issue) is truly mind boggling. Heck, Hillary and Obama differed greatly in 2008, and he hired her as his Secretary of State. Romney doesn't have to walk in lock-step with anybody, but any chance the media gets to distort something against Mitt it will jump on and magnify.

Those are just a few examples of the media's twist, but yes, to me, it's a chicken and egg kind of thing. Romney isn't really the gaffe-machine the liberal media wants you to think he is... he is making gaffes because the liberal media is telling people he is. The bottom line is, the media's anti-Romney motives are becoming clearer and clearer, and they're to the point of twisting facts and using distorting headlines to push their agenda. The CNN article I'm referring to does just that. Let's get back to it.

What does this headline say? Again, it reads, ""Some Prominent Supporters Blast Romney for Mixed Messages on Health Care 'Tax.'" Why is this significant? For starters, the word "some" indicates there might be more than one. Secondly, the "mixed messages," as expected, is playing off this "flip flopping" claim. But, if you actually read the article past the headline, you'll realize a few things that show how misleading the headline is:

- "Some" is actually one: Yes, that's the case here. Though the headline hints that there are more than one supporter (it actually says "and now, plenty of people..." but it cites one) that claim Romney is giving mixed messages about his stance, they only cite one: Katrina vanden Heuvel. That's it. She constitutes "some" backers. Now the article does cite other Romney backers and their strong opinions about Romney's campaign, but NONE of these gripes have anything to do with Romney's "mixed message" on the health care "tax." The article cites Rupert Murdoch's and Jack Welsh's opinions on the Romney campaign but like I said, they have nothing to do with any apparent disdain for Romney's opinion on calling the health care mandate a tax. To me, that's pretty slimy.

- "Blast!" What a harsh word. "Supporters BLAST" Romney. If you read vanden Heuvel's Tweet, it doesn't look like much of a blast at all. Hmmm.

- Serious, unnecessary, anti-Romney undertones: I'll let you decide... here are a few highlights from the article:

     - "Romney and his staffers have been going back and forth on whether to call it a tax as an attack on President Obama or not a tax, to preserve the argument that Romney never raised taxes in his state despite having a similar health care law." - Nice chop attempt here, CNN, but yes, state law and federal law are quite different. Romney actually highlights these differences well. Watch the interview.

     - "On Wednesday, Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said the federal health care reform mandate constitutes a "tax," contradicting the way his senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, of the Etch-a-Sketch gaffe fame, characterized his position earlier this week." - Always good to know the mainstream media will throw in a factually inaccurate cut-low. It's like a dog that can toss itself its own bone. 

So, what is CNN's agenda? Is this news? Or do they jump at any attempt to smear Romney in any way they can? It's coming out thick recently, just as it did here: http://loudmouthelephant.blogspot.com/2012/07/obamas-most-powerful-surrogate-media.html. I just hope Americans can see through this.