CNN Gets it Wrong

This link will take you to a story that is presently the headline on the CNN.com politics section. I had the opportunity to attend this “invitation only meeting.” Mitt Romney had a small rally at the Hilton hotel in Greenville, SC. It was mainly for students at the infamously conservative Bob Jones University. Neither I nor anyone else in that room knew that what was said was being recorded. If you listen to the complete audio you can hear me ask Romney about the Iraq war about 3/4 of the way through the recording. This meeting was a clear attempt by Romney to capitalize on the recent endorsement he received from Bob Jones III.

Unfortunately CNN has badly misrepresented what went on at that meeting. First of all “invitation only” is hardly accurate. I wasn’t asked for an invitation at the door, and to my knowledge, neither was anyone else. This meeting was only advertised within the Bob Jones community via email as well as word of mouth, but characterizing this meeting as “closed doors” or “invitation only” would seem to describe some dark smoke-filled room where Romney strikes a deal with evangelicals for a few votes in a key primary state.

Something else that CNN failed to mention was the announcement made recently in chapel by Stephen Jones, president of Bob Jones University. Dr. Jones clearly stated that the endorsement of Mitt Romney by his father was not the position of Bob Jones University. He went on to say that he didn’t believe that it was the school’s job to endorse a candidate, and that his father was endorsing Mr. Romney as a private citizen, and not as Chancellor of the University. Presumably this means that the days of media firestorms revolving around the political stances of Bob Jones University are over. Stephen Jones also went mentioned that it was “OK” to disagree with his father’s stance. He could not have been more clear.

The problem with this headline from CNN… is that it is a headline from CNN! Nothing significant happened at this “invitation only” meeting. A room full of overdressed Bob Jones students and alumni heard a stump speech from Mitt Romney. He made his speech, answered a few questions, shook some hands, posed for some pictures, and smiled a lot. It has been done literally hundreds of times by every candidate running for their party’s presidential nomination over the past few months and this campaign stop was no different. I honestly don’t understand why CNN has this as a headline. I could make a few cynical statements about how CNN hates conservative Christianity and how they are trying to bring down a good Christian school. But I doubt that this is the case. In reality I think that someone over at CNN thought that they could create some controversy so that they could boost their ratings. It just doesn’t make sense to me, and I think that CNN should turn its attention to real news and ignore the occasional bitter Bob Jones alumni that tries to create controversy where there is none.