Four months ago, The Politico published one of the stupidest articles we’ve ever read by them. Really: Reading “Soledad O’Brien puts guests on the griddle” made us uncomfortable, like we were reading the private correspondence of two lovestruck teenagers. (Bedford: The top five reasons Politico is garbage, in their own words)
The ode begins,
If you search Google News for “Soledad O’Brien,” the host of CNN’s “Starting Point,” you’ll notice a recurring theme: the story is almost always about an argument, and the quotes in the headline are almost always hers.
“Soledad O’Brien tells Rudy Giuliani: ‘Let Me Finish.’” “Soledad O’Brien calls ‘Dog Whistle’ on Tea Party Chair.” “Soledad O’Brien to Reince Priebus: ‘Answer It!’”
Well, this week, the edgy, metropolitan Soledad and her Virginia country boyfriend learned that viewers weren’t actually impressed by “quotes in the headline [that] are always hers,” when it was announced that Soledad (pronounced: Soul-eh-dad) was being removed from her morning CNN anchor position to an outside producer role for the flailing (failing?) cable news company. (Bedford: Newsweek is dead, long live the news)
But don’t get too down over poor Soledad. The romance may have been fleeting, but we had fun.
So let’s remember the good times.
Like that time Soledad pretended to know what critical race theory was, dismissing and attacking her guest while waiting for the interns to whisper a Wikipedia entry into her earpiece and get her off the hook.
Remember that? She invited Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Joel Pollak on her show, told him that his correct summary of Critical Race Theory — that it holds that “the civil rights movement was a sham and that white supremacy is the order and it must be overthrown” — was incorrect: “That is a critical misreading… there is no white supremacy in that,” Soledad said. Then, when challenged, she ducked and dived until she was able to conjure a paraphrased Wikipedia definition.
Or that time just after, when Soledad brought an expert online to say the embattled CNN host was correct (so “stop tweeting me”) — even though the expert’s own book contradicted that little alibi.
“If you got five of us [Critical Race theorists] in a room, we might get into a fight about what Critical Race Theory was, but no one would say it’s about white supremacy,”. Emory University professor Dorothy Brown assuaged Soledad’s panicked viewers. “We agree on that.”
Remember that?
Or that time The Politico was so engaged by her feisty morning demeanor that they made a montage to put at the top of their article; or that time they were so enamored with her face, that they made a triptych of her adorable expressions.
In that same article, The Politico quoted Soledad: “For me, this is how you do documentary interviews. You become really knowledgeable about a topic so that you can have a really good conversation at a high level with somebody. The key for me is to be knowledgeable about the topic. Read everything. Prepare everything. Have every quote, poll number, report in front of you — it’s all about preparation, which is very similar to how you do a documentary.” (RELATED: CNN’s Soledad O’Brien wins Media Matters stamp of approval)
We guess that’s what she did for her series on Critical Race Theory.
And what she did here, and here, and there.
We’ll sure miss that hard-hitting reporting.
For a little over one year, those who tuned in enjoyed sharing their mornings with Soledad as she triumphed over facts, vanquished ratings and berated those insolent Republicans. But now, finally, she has been taken from us. And while we’re going to have to assume that Soledad’s impact on the United States won’t be lasting, and while we sure know for sure that she didn’t teach us anything new, we can say with certainty that she reminded us of a few important lessons.
Like being an opinionated pundit has it’s place –and its not when pretending to be a reporter.
And writing fluff pieces about how being an opinionated pundit is actually hard-hitting reporting, isn’t hard-hitting reporting.
And even though being a pundit is cool, being a stupid pundit is often short-lived.
And now she’s gone.
But we’re sure we’ll see her again.
Maybe at Politico?