April 24, 2014 7:35 AM

When you lose the distinction between the truth and the absurd, you have CNN

One week after a Ku Klux Klan member shot three people dead at Jewish institutions in Kansas, CNN is speculating, “Can the Klan rebrand?”…. “Imperial Ancona, who lives in Missouri, insists there’s a new Klan for modern times — a Klan that’s “about educating people to our ideas and getting people to see our point of view to…help change things,” CNN’s Ashley Fantz writes. “He said he and those like him can spread that message without violence — a sort of rebranding of the Klan.”…. To learn if this is possible, Fantz asked marketing and PR experts if America’s most infamous white supremacist group could shed its violent past. According to one quoted ad agency president, lynchings are not too different from products, like a car that kills people because of an exploding gas tank. In his words, “if you have a car that is killing people because the gas tank is exploding, it doesn’t matter how fantastic the ad campaign is for that car.” CNN should have also taken note that this is not the first time the KKK has declared it is “rebranding.”

Time was when I used to watch CNN as my primary news source. It was a network without a clear and obvious editorial/ideological bias, the reporting was above average, and the information provided was timely and addressed the important issues of the day. That seems like such a very long time ago, though it’s really only been just a few years.

Somewhere along the line, CNN’s grip on reality (along with its ability to tell a compelling story) jumped the shark (Jessica Yellin in a hologram? Really?)…and the network veered into the morass that is tabloid journalism. Ted Turner’s brainchild became notable primarily for endless reporting on Justin Bieber and other less than compelling stories. CNN became less of a news provider than something almost equivalent to the New York Post (albeit without the nasty Right-wing edge). With frequent forays into what can only be described as “WTF??” journalism, CNN is a parody of what it once was. It’s a joke, very often the target of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for its descent into absurdity.

Seldom has CNN’s descent into ridiculousness been more obvious than Ashley Fantz’ exploration of whether the KKK can “rebrand.” It’s a question some might consider worth asking…but is it really the sort of subject matter a news organizations should be delving into in such detail? Is an examination of how America’s #1 racist organization can repackage its hatred and bigotry really the stuff of serious journalism? Or do CNN’s assignment editors really have so little for their journalists to do that they’re reducing to “investigating” the marketing of racism?

It doesn’t a doctorate in sociology to understand how Fantz’ journalistic foray might not be universally well received. Not surprisingly, Twitter, the online birthplace of derision and snark, went into warp drive in a spasm of well-deserved ridicule. Even Gawker, never renowned for being the repository of sober, serious journalism, called Fantz’ article a “landmark expression of idiocy.”. No argument there, eh?

CNN, in a roundabout way, answers its own question of whether this is conceivable. No, a hate group forever linked to lynchings and violence does not have a chance to transform into a kinder form of racism. A Time story called “The KKK Tries To Make a Comeback” arrives at a similar conclusion, quoting experts who say the idea is ridiculous. “Some groups do try to position themselves to say they’re just fighting for white rights, that they’re not racist. But that’s absurd. It’s just racism dressed up in a new language,” Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project told Time.

Just as the John Birch Society will forever be linked with arch-Conservative anti-Communism, so will the KKK be associated with race hatred. There’s simply no way to effectively “repackage” or “rebrand” racism. You can drape it in a $1500 Giorgio Armani suit, and what you’ll have is racism in a pretty package. When you strip away the marketing ploys and the propaganda, the Ku Klux Klan is about racism. It’s about advancing the interest of the White race by keeping non-Whites- specifically, African-Americans- “in their place.” If you for some reason doubt that the KKK’s foundation is racism, consider this: the KKK’s leadership claims that membership has tripled since Barack Obama became President. Think about that for a moment; the KKK’s raison d’ etre) is racism.

Any organization wants to present their best public face to attract members, business, and/or financial support. I don’t blame the KKK for wanting to do what they can to improve their image; it’s still a free country. Unfortunately for them, their product is the problem. How do you sell racism, bigotry, and hatred? The short answer is that you can’t. I’m reminded of a story about Winston Churchill, who, when confronted about being drunk, responded (I’m paraphrasing), “Madam, it’s true that I’m drunk. I’ll wake up sober in the morning. You, however, will still be ugly.”

Such is the KKK’s problem; no matter how you rebrand, repackage, or reposition racism, it’s still racism and it’s still ugly.

Was it necessary for Fantz to devote 2000 words to this subject? Or was it really a slow news day and her assignment editor had nothing else for her to do?

Coming up next: Wolf Blitzer speaks with Ashley Fantz, who will appear on “The Situation Room” as a hologram from her vacation home in Akron.

THIS is why I no longer watch CNN.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on April 24, 2014 7:35 AM.

Memo to the Tea Party: Guess what? Your hero's a racist. What does that say about you? was the previous entry in this blog.

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