Santorum fired at CNN

RAPID CITY—A concerted campaign from many Native Americans organizations and their celebrity allies resulted in the termination of former Republican Senator Rick Santorum as a CNN commentator last week. Santorum is widely known for his right-wing Christian views, and speaking before a private audience in April, he said, “We birthed a nation from nothing…I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

A press release from the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, dated May 24, asserted: “Collective action pressuring CNN to terminate Santorum as a political commentator, was taken by Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association, IllumiNative, TWIN, National Congress of the American Indian, other advocates and allies to address the misrepresentation of Native America in the media.”

While this collective effort did result in termination, Santorum did not disparage Native Americans in the media, he made his remarks to a private gathering, the Young America’s Foundation. Perhaps, therefore, rather than terminate him immediately, Santorum appeared on Chris Cuomo’s show and was given a chance by CNN to explain his remarks. A CNN executive told Huff Post: “Leadership wasn’t particularly satisfied with that appearance. None of the anchors wanted to book him, so he was essentially benched anyway.”

No Santorum responses to Cuomo contained an apology, and he said his remarks were “taken out of context.” While he admitted Native Americans had contributed greatly to the fabric of American society, Santorum decontextualized his remarks as only addressing the founding of the country.

The Huff Post reported the CNN executive as concluding: “I think after that appearance, it was pretty clear we couldn’t use him again.”

CNN has been on the hot seat in recent years for creating a news network built on false equivalency, where controversy is courted for ratings. This famously came to a head on a 2004 episode of Crossfire hosted by Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala. Daily Show host Jon Stewart gave Carlson a dressing down for “hurting America” and for “stroking controversy.” Stewart is credited for getting the show canceled. But CNN did not back away from their newly created business model. When the CNN executive says “use him again,” he may have inadvertently revealed that CNN uses public figures with sharply defined identity and perspective to put a face on a contrived platform of an informed and representative debate, but one designed to accomplish two objectives: maximize ratings and peddle the Party of Choice’s taking points.

Regardless of how CNN viewed him, MSN News reported that Santorum told Sean Hannity on Fox News that “he gives CNN some credit for keeping him on as a contributor for a few years, saying there was pressure to fire him for a while, but said the network dropping him is ‘disappointing.’

This previous pressure to fire Santorum would predate the specifics and scope of the reason Native American groups sought his termination. Santorum told Hannity what he had told Cuomo: “What I said was not at all disparaging towards Native Americans. What I was talking about is the founding of the United States of America, and that Native Americans did not have a role in the founding of our country.” Even that assertion is debatable history, but the right wing media’s take on the Santorum termination pulled no punches and sparred little hyperbole. A Fox News headline read: “Santorum booted from CNN over racist comment, but keeps scandal-plagued Chris Cuomo.”

Fox News also added: “Despite canning Santorum over the incident, CNN has failed to take action against Cuomo, who has faced numerous scandals this year, including joining strategy calls with his brother (Governor Andrew Cuomo) amid growing sexual misconduct allegations.”

Tribal interest was involved here, Santorum’s remarks were disparaging, but the real battle, and a battle that could impact tribal interest in the future, is the battle being waged between the Centrist media and the Right-Wing media, where important tribal issues are important only as a cudgel to use against competing media, and advance competing political alliances and ideologies.

(Contact James Giago Davies at editor@nativesunnews.today)

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