January 7, 2008
Wolf Blitzer’s boasting blitz
To watch the US primaries, as I have been doing this weekend, is to be bombarded with endless pledges of "change" as other candidates scramble to react to Barack Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucus.
The mantra that most irritates me, however, is the banal insistence of Wolf Blitzer, the main politics presenter on Cable News Network on referring repeatedly to a (as far as I can discern, run-of-the-mill) bunch of talking heads in the CNN studios as "the best political team on television".
I swear that he must have uttered the phrase 20 times as I was listening to CNN on C-Span radio on Sunday afternoon. Apparently, CNN won an Emmy for its analysis and it has seized upon this as a branding opportunity.
Other media outlets, the FT included, are not shy about advertising their awards. But please, Mr Blitzer, could you cease this inane repetition? We are only at the start of the election year and I will not be able to stand it if you keep it up until November. Others also seem to be feeling the pain from CNN’s onslaught of boasting.
It is the voters who will decide the next president and it is the viewers who choose "the best political team on television". Not Wolf Blitzer.
